Poets, Journalists, Researchers Awarded Literary Prize

The 7^th Ranieri Filo della Torre lit­er­ary prize con­cluded with an award cer­e­mony last month at Palazzo della Valle, Confagricoltura’s head­quar­ters in Rome.

Twelve awards were handed out to authors of olive oil-themed lit­er­ary and sci­en­tific works, and newly intro­duced spe­cial awards were given to pro­fes­sion­als for out­stand­ing olive oil sec­tor com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

“The objec­tive we have set our­selves at the estab­lish­ment of the con­test is to enhance the strong inter­con­nec­tion between the olive tree and olive oil and cul­ture,” said Loriana Abbruzzetti, the cre­ator of the prize and pres­i­dent of Pandolea, a non-profit that brings together women in the olive oil sec­tor.

The con­test was con­ceived to pay homage to Ranieri Filo della Torre, an impor­tant Italian olive-grow­ing fig­ure pas­sion­ate about art and cul­ture.

Over time, it has become an esteemed event in the olive oil sec­tor and an occa­sion to launch Pandolea’s national and inter­na­tional health and edu­ca­tion projects.

Last year’s prize was included in the cel­e­bra­tions of the association’s 20^th anniver­sary, when the Cyrene Project, a pact for women’s health, was launched to spread healthy eat­ing habits and lifestyle based on the Mediterranean diet.

“The award is divided into two cat­e­gories: the sci­en­tific one, which rewards degree and doc­tor­ate the­ses, and the lit­er­ary one, which rewards short sto­ries, poems and haiku, a newly added sec­tion,” Abbruzzetti said.

“All the works high­light the his­tory, regions, suc­cesses, tra­di­tions and inno­va­tions in olive grow­ing,” she added. ​“The sci­en­tific works cover the lat­est research devel­op­ments and address cur­rent chal­lenges.”

“In this edi­tion, we also intro­duced the spe­cial awards for olive oil com­mu­ni­ca­tion,” Abbruzzetti noted. ​“We believe that the work of com­mu­ni­ca­tors in this sec­tor is fun­da­men­tal to dis­sem­i­nat­ing the cul­ture of qual­ity.”

The spe­cial awards were won by Nerina di Nunzio, a food and wine expert; Sabrina Pupillo, a food tech­nol­o­gist and influ­encer; Luciana Squadrilli, a food and wine jour­nal­ist; and Marzia Roncacci, a jour­nal­ist and tele­vi­sion host. The win­ners received paint­ings and pho­tographs from Italian visual artists.

Participation in the con­test is free and open to all. In this sev­enth edi­tion, 50 authors com­peted for the three podium places in each sec­tion.

During the event, the group of actors Lettori giUlivi read the win­ning works, some of which were pub­lished in the anthol­ogy Un filo d’olio by La Ruota Editrice.

Nerina Poggese, Tiziana Monari, and Sebastiano Mario Fiori are the poetry sec­tion win­ners (listed from first to third).

The short story sec­tion win­ners are Francesca Pecorella, Nerina Poggese and Sergio Malvasi.

The haiku sec­tion win­ners are Emanuela Capodarco, Antonio Sacco and Antonietta Tiberia.

The sci­en­tific sec­tion win­ners are Giuliana Prevete, with the PhD the­sis ​“Liposomes as a ver­sa­tile tool for the deliv­ery of nat­ural antimi­cro­bials;” Andrea Fornetti, with the degree the­sis ​“Evaluation of the new-con­cept rotat­ing effects on qual­ity and yield at the extrac­tion of vir­gin olive oils;” and Luigi Pacchiani, with the bach­e­lor the­sis ​“Enhancement of nutraceu­ti­cals prop­er­ties of extra vir­gin olive oil through the use of its waste.”

Pandolea’s web­site and social media pro­vide infor­ma­tion about the Ranieri Filo della Torre Literary Prize, includ­ing how to reg­is­ter for the next edi­tion and about Pandolea’s ini­tia­tives.