L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2024 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN COMMUNITY L i t q u a k e , t h e m o s t p o p u l a r a n d t h e l a r g e s t independent lit- erary festival on the West Coast, is back for its 25th edition. With over 100 events spanning from Octo- ber 10th to the 26th, it hosts a r o u n d 6 0 0 a u t h o r s a n d draws over 21,000 attendees annually. Once called Lit- s t o c k , w i t h e v e n t s t a k i n g place in a single day in Gold- en Gate Park in the spring of 1 9 9 9 , t h e c u r r e n t s e t u p includes a two-week run in mid-October and year-round programs and workshops. Litquake was founded by Jack Boulware and Jane G a n a h l w i t h t h e i d e a o f s h o w c a s i n g a u t h o r s a n d books aimed to inspire criti- cal engagement with the key issues of the day. It brings people together around liter- ature, and nurtures a sense of community by providing a vibrant forum for Bay Area writing. In 2002, the festival b e g a n e x p a n d i n g i t s p r o - gramming to include writing from around the world and, l a t e r o n , i t a d d e d m o r e national and international a u t h o r s , y o u t h p r o g r a m s (Kidquake), workshops for the elderly (Elder Project), a podcast (Lit Cast Live), and special localized editions of the Lit Crawl, like in Naples, among many other cities. It's in this context that, when scrolling the authors' page on the website, a big Italian name pops up: it's I t a l i a n a u t h o r S t e f a n i a A u c i , who will be in San Francisco to talk about her latest book, Fall of the Flo- rios, the conclusion of the bestselling Florios trilogy. We had a chance to con- n e c t w i t h h e r b e f o r e t h e upcoming trip to learn more about her life and the love for writing. Born in Trapani, author Auci graduated in Law in Palermo and later moved to Florence where she worked as chancellor. She is now back in Sicily, working as a teacher. Mrs. Auci, can you tell us a little about yourself and your life? I'm a normal person who splits her time between the m a i n j o b a s a s u p p o r t t e a c h e r i n a l o c a l h i g h school, family, and writing. I also try to keep some free time for myself. I love play- ing sports and spending my days with my loved ones. I dedicate my life to writing a n d t e a c h i n g : c o m b i n i n g these two is certainly chal- lenging. W h a t d o y o u t a k e a w a y f r o m b e i n g a teacher as you write and, on the other hand, how does writing help you, if so, to do the job better or differently? O f t e n t i m e s , I p r e f e r t o keep these two worlds sepa- rate. I invest different ener- gies in both, they influence my emotional world in very different ways. Working with young people with disabili- ties is extremely difficult, at t i m e s s t r e s s f u l . I t i s n o t always possible to maintain the right distance from their human side. When it comes to writing, it is another type of burden, with challenges I try to manage through an effort that concerns only my personal sphere. I keep them strictly separate, also for logistical reasons. In Fall of the Florios, Auci c h r o n i c l e s t h e d e c l i n e o f Italy's most powerful and notorious family against the ever-shifting social land- scape of 1890s-1930s Sicily. For more than 60 years, the F l o r i o s h a v e r e i g n e d supreme, establishing the city of Palermo as a Euro- pean beacon of commerce, a n d m a k i n g S i c i l y o n e o f I t a l y ' s m o s t p o w e r f u l regions. A literary sensation t h a t w e n t o n t o s e l l o v e r 1,500,000 copies in Italy alone before being published i n o v e r 4 0 c o u n t r i e s a n d forming the basis of T h e Lions of Sicily, a successful series available on Disney+ and Hulu. Sicily is at the center of your books. Can you tell us more about the region and the people at that time? How current are the stories you tell about? O n e o f t h e e d i t o r s I worked with me suggested me to learn to write and talk about a world I know well. I believe he was right, so much so that the stories set in Sici- l y I t e l l c o m e a f t e r m a n y years spent describing differ- ent landscapes and places, such as Scotland or Tuscany. From a certain point of view, Sicily has not changed much from how it was when my stories take place. It is a diffi- cult land, at times ungrate- ful, with a memory that is sometimes short and some- times very long. Above all, I see a great disenchantment in Sicilians: they no longer have the desire to believe in political projects or innova- tions, since they often live and feel like a colonized pop- ulation. Just think of the bridge they want to build to connect the region to the mainland. Sicilians don't welcome this project because there are other more impor- tant priorities like roads, railways, and renovating the w a t e r s y s t e m . I t ' s l i k e a c a t h e d r a l i n t h e d e s e r t , somehow useless. Once, you talked about the key moment in 2015 when this book project took hold and became reality. Could you share it with us too? It was a completely ran- dom moment, dictated by a twist of fate, something like a throw of the dice at roulette. A friend of mine suggested that I abandon the project I was working on to dedicate m y s e l f t o a f a m i l y s t o r y , something I had never done and which I was strongly afraid of doing. I saw way too many challenges. Today, I can say that not only did that person see things through, but was also able to evaluate my talent better than I did. L e t ' s t a l k a b o u t Litquake and your atten- dance in San Francisco i n m i d - O c t o b e r . W h a t excites you the most and what scares you? I am very excited by the idea of being able to deal with a cultural context that is radically different from the one I am part of and live in. There is no fear when there is curiosity and a desire to learn. Dealing with the reali- ties of great cultural stimula- tion such as the international communities, the communi- ties of Italians abroad, and the universities is one of the most beautiful moments that an author can experience. Sicily is well known a n d l o v e d h e r e i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , a l s o because of its immigra- tion stories and the large communities of Sicilians who live across the coun- try. What do you want them to know? First and foremost, I want to remind those who may have forgotten their roots of the joy, pride, and pleasure of being Sicilian—not just as people marked by the mafia experience and its legacy. They come from an island where commerce thrived, where culture played a vital role in collective enrichment, where beauty was nurtured and preserved, and where p e o p l e w e r e p i o n e e r s i n e x p e r i m e n t i n g w i t h n e w forms of production. The Florios, for example, repre- sented a kind of American dream right in Sicily. F a l l o f t h e F l o r i o s : Stefania Auci with Sara M a r i n e l l i w i t h i n t h e Litquake festival takes place at Telegraph Hill Books on O c t o b e r 1 6 t h s t a r t i n g a t 7 p m . M o r e i n f o a t https://www.litquake.org/ . Author Stefania Auci and her latest book, Fall of the Florios, take the stage at Litquake Festival SERENA PERFETTO Stefania Auci is a Sicilian author well known around the world (Photo: Yuma Martellanz)

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