Valeria Parrella

Valeria Parrella (Torre del Greco, January 20, 1974) is an Italian writer, playwright, and librettist. A graduate in Modern Literature from the University of Naples, she is also a trained interpreter of Italian Sign Language. She made her debut in 2003 with the short story collection Mosca più balena (minimum fax), which won the Campiello Opera Prima Prize and the Procida-Isola di Arturo-Elsa Morante Prize. In 2008, she published the novel Lo spazio bianco (Feltrinelli), winner of the Basilicata Literary Prize, which was adapted into a 2009 film of the same name directed by Francesca Comencini. With Almarina (Einaudi, 2019), she won the Flaiano Prize and placed third for the 2020 Strega Prize. With La Fortuna (Feltrinelli, 2022), she won the 2023 Mondello Prize. She also writes plays and opera librettos.