Born as a cultural wager and, over the years, established as a key event in the European literary festival landscape, Incroci di civiltà has developed a distinct identity: not merely a series of presentations, but a genuine meeting ground between authors and readers, between distant literary traditions, between worlds that books suddenly bring closer together. Its setting in Venice is no coincidence: the lagoon city, a crossroads of peoples and trade for centuries, provides a natural backdrop for a festival grounded in cultural exchange.
The themes at the core of Incroci di civiltà revolve around a defining element: universalism – what, within writing, creative practice, and the relationship with readers, constitutes the universal thread that binds humanity.
Flavio Gregori, Director of Incroci di Civiltà
This vision takes shape in a program of remarkable geographical and thematic breadth, with more than twenty authors from four continents, and with questions that, despite arising from radically different experiences, converge on the same wounds and hopes of our time.
One of the most pressing concerns identity and belonging. Who are we when we are uprooted from the place we were born? What remains of us in another’s language? These questions run through the work of Mylene Fernández Pintado, a Cuban writer who explores nostalgia and transculturation as existential conditions, and Stevo Grabovac, an original voice from the Balkans who brings to Venice both the scars and vitality of a frequently overlooked Europe. They also animate the work of Dmitrij Strocev, a Belarusian poet arrested in 2020 for taking part in protests against the regime and now in exile in Berlin: his presence at the Festival is, in itself, a statement.
Alongside them are some of the strongest voices in contemporary women’s writing. Zadie Smith – who will close the Festival on April 18 – has spent decades portraying the fractures and richness of the multicultural world with an irony and clarity that have made her one of the most widely read and discussed writers today. Sara Stridsberg, a member of the Swedish Academy and an internationally renowned playwright, has made the female body and psyche central to her work. Ping Lu, among Taiwan’s most acclaimed writers, moves across genres – from psychological fiction to science fiction – always from a distinctly female perspective. Ryōko Sekiguchi, poet and translator born in Tokyo and based in Paris, will present a book devoted to Venice, conceived as a gesture toward the city hosting her.Memory – personal, collective, political – is another thread running through the edition. Widad Tamimi, an Italian journalist born to a Palestinian refugee father and a mother of Jewish origin, intertwines in her latest work her family history with the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with a clarity that is both painful and illuminating. Dayanita Singh, an internationally recognized Indian photographer, will open an exhibition at the State Archives of Venice reflecting on how images are organized and reinterpreted over time – a dialogue between photography and archive on view until July 31. Geoff Dyer, a British essayist equally at ease writing about jazz, cinema, and war, presents his latest memoir.
The Festival also gives space to more direct forms of civic engagement. Samah Karaki, a Franco-Lebanese biologist and neuroscientist, raises a disquieting question: why is our empathy selective? Why do we respond to some and ignore others? Abigail Assor, Hajar Azell, and Ève Guerra – three French-language writers of North African and African origin – will discuss contemporary France from the margins, offering a perspective that reveals underlying truths about today’s Europe.
Poetry will take center stage on the morning of April 17, with Carol Ann Duffy – the first woman appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom – Jonathan Galassi, a legendary publisher and translator who is also a poet, Kim Simonsen from the Faroe Islands, and Juan Ignacio Siles del Valle from Bolivia. Alongside literature, science will also feature prominently: Davide Zannoni will bring his perspective on the microbial world, while David Uclés and Teresa Präauer represent two of the most distinctive and awarded voices in contemporary European fiction.
Opening the Festival on Wednesday, April 15 at the Teatro Goldoni is Iranian pianist Ramin Bahrami, an internationally renowned performer whose cosmopolitan sensibility – shaped by German, Russian, Turkish, and Persian influences – perfectly reflects the spirit of Incroci. Before the concert, the Cesare De Michelis Prize will be awarded to Jonathan Galassi, the Incroci–Musei Civici di Venezia Prize to Zadie Smith, and the Incroci Giovani–Albero d’Oro Prize to David Uclés.
The Festival is supported by Ca’ Foscari, the City of Venice, the Fondazione di Venezia, Marsilio, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, and the Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, within a network of national and international partnerships that ensure its reach well beyond Italy.
INFO
Opening: Wednesday, April 15, 5:30 p.m. – Teatro Goldoni (free admission, booking required from March 20)
Bookings for talks: from April 2, 2026, 12 p.m. at: www.incrocidicivilta.org
