Italy’s Strega Prize Goes to Helena Janeczek

The Strega Prize is Italy’s most prestigious literary award. The 2018 recipient is Helena Janeczek, a naturalized Italian citizen who was raised in Germany by Polish parents. She is the first woman to have received the honor since 2003.

Her winning novel, called La Ragazza con la Leica (The Girl with the Camera) documents the story of an extraordinary young woman, Gerda Taro, who documented the Spanish Civil war before dying in a train accident.  The novel describes the story of three friends who meet in Paris during the 1930’s and go to Spain to illuminate the struggles of the Republican army to defeat Franco’s fascist nationalists. Taro, a Jewish woman from Germany, empathizes with the plight of the Spanish people and sees the war as an opportunity to redeem herself and strike back at fascism.

The Strega Prize has been awarded by every year since its inception in 1944 by Maria and Goffredo Bellonci. The couple began to host a literary club out of their home in Rome which included some of Italy’s most prominent writers, artist and intellectuals. This group became known as the Sunday Friends. However, it was not until 1947 with a partnership with the Strega liqueur company that the award began to gain notoriety at a national level.

-William Caterham