Chiara Carminati: Author–Italy

Chiara Carminati was born in Udine, Italy, in 1971. She graduated in Italian Literature from the University of Trieste, Italy, with a thesis on sound symbolism in poetry. Afterwards, she specialized in Linguistics and Text Analysis at the University of Aix-en-Provence, France. Since 1999, she has written nearly thirty books for children and two essays on poetry. As a novelist, poet, and playwright for children and young people, she is one of the most appreciated in Italy.

Carminati alternates poetic research and writing with the need to frequently meet children, teenagers, and adults; to confront herself with them; and to bring them new experiences and find new stories to tell. Indeed, with passion and enthusiasm, she continuously visits schools, theaters, and libraries all over Italy in an extensive reading promotion activity especially focused on poetry. She teaches librarians, parents, and children how to get immersed into books; she nurtures young people with her readings; she brings rhymes and poems into schools and encourages children and teachers to explore the manifold world of words and to discover all its colors, sounds, and emotions. She displays, moreover, the diversity of language through collaborations with other art forms, and she believes that reading aloud is necessary when you aim to engage and enchant young children with reading.

Besides writing children's literature and poetry, Carminati has also created several plays for children in collaboration with actors, illustrators, and musicians. By mixing different art forms, a world is created where children's minds are engaged on several creative levels. Notably, Carminati has collaborated with the Linea Armonica ensemble, and together with them, she has produced plays based on her most popular books. She also has a long established artistic partnership with illustrator Pia Valentinis, who has illustrated most of Carminati's work.

Carminati's written work speaks on a personal level. Both engaging and refined, her language is characterized by amusing rhymes and clever poetic games. Carminati's original and evocative approach to poetry has not been developed to turn children into poets but to help them to discover the wonder of it and to read, write, and memorize poetry—to happily experiment the expressive potentialities of language.

For her work as a writer of children's literature, Chiara Carminati in 2009 won the Premio Nazionale di Letteratura per ragazzi "Città di Bella" with the book Diario in corsa; the same book was awarded the "Terre del Magnifico" Award in 2010. For her passion and her method of mixing different art forms, as well as her theoretical research, Carminati was in 2012 awarded the Italian award Premio Andersen-Il mondo dell'infanzia as best author of the year. In 2016, for the book Fuori Fuoco, Carminati won the Premio Strega Ragazzi e Ragazze, the most important recognition for children literature in Italy. Her work has also been translated into French, Korean, Chinese, and Greek.