When Italy reads Pakistan, it’s a win-win for both countries

Italian consulate announces award for contemporary Pakistani authors

KARACHI: In an attempt to make cultural inroads into Pakistan and vice versa, the Italian consulate in Karachi has announced an award for contemporary Pakistani authors.

Italian Consul General to Karachi Gianluca Rubagotti announced the 'Italy Reads Pakistan' Award, a collaboration of Metropoli d'Asia and Consulate General of Italy in Karachi, on Monday evening.

At the press conference at Avari Towers on Monday, Rubagotti said that the award is open to contemporary and emerging Pakistani authors, who have not had the chance to be published.

Entries for Italian translations are open for writings in both English and Urdu. Since the focus would be on contemporary writings, the work should have been published (in Pakistan only) or unpublished in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. The entries will then be shortlisted by a local jury and sent to the Italian jury which will select the winner from five shortlisted nominations.

Sharing the idea behind the award, Rubagotti said that Italy is a superpower in the cultural field and Italian institutions want to put Italy back on the map of Pakistan. "Italy has the biggest community of Pakistani nationals in Europe," he said, adding that such exchange will bridge the gap between perceptions of the two countries. Rubagotti further added that the aim is to find common experiences that modern men and women of two countries face. "It will not just be a prize in cash but it will also open gates to access to Italy," he said.

Oxford University Press managing director Ameena Saiyid, who co-chaired the press conference, said that Italy Reads Pakistan is a wonderful initiative to open Pakistani literature to readers in Italy. "Italy will act as a door to the rest of Europe," she said, adding that it will help connect the two countries.

Four different panels focusing on the experience of an Italian editor who publishes contemporary Asian novels in Italian literature, Italian and Urdu literature and Italian art will also be held at the seventh Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) 2016, scheduled for this weekend.

Pakisanti writer Bina Shah, whose two novels and one short story have already been published in Italian, said that an award like this is an honour for Pakistan as literature does a lot of work that diplomats cannot do. "It can change some writer's life," she said, sharing her own experience about how her work could not have found a better home than Italy.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2016.