THE LONG JOURNEY OF THE BOOK OF 18.03

The STAFF of The book of 18.03 Caterina, Sara, Franca, Giorgia, Valentina, Nevio, Max, Andrea, Nicola, Marino, Massimo, Marco, Paolo

It all started inside the Gorizia train station, in a room that Apt (then based in the same building) had adapted as a meeting room after renting it from the Railways. From a warehouse for disused material, a warehouse for tools, brooms and other things that were used for the maintenance of the station, it became, renovated, a place for enlarged meetings that could not find space in the offices on the first floor. A beautiful room with French windows towards the tracks on one side and the square from where buses and coaches departed on the other side. The book of 18.03 was born in there, between a passing train and a bus leaving, in the autumn of 2008; the occasion, casual, the presentation of a book by Giorgio Mosetti, a writer from Gorizia, La panchina sotto il Pino, released a few months earlier. It should have ended there and instead… From a symbolic place of city intermodality, in continuous movement, it has become, in the paradox of terms, a fixed point to strengthen the link between culture and territory, an event appreciated by those who love the culture of travel and the journey into culture, but also a journey into memory and memories. The most famous writers on the Italian literary scene have passed through that meeting room, which has become the cultural room of the train station, stopping to wait for a train to pass, as well as debutants who are now established writers; And then many, many journalists who lent themselves to dialogue with the authors and actors to read their most beautiful pages. More than sixteen years have passed and almost twice as many as the editions, spring and autumn; Several people, among the organizers of the review, continue to collaborate actively since then. But even much of the audience of the first hour has never left us and to this has been added an increasing number of people from all over the region who fill the halls and wait for the appointments we propose. The stimulus to continue derives precisely from this and from the appreciation that surrounds the 18.03 at the regional and Italian publishing houses and from other literary events that know they can count on us to bring their proposals to Gorizia and the Isonzo area. Spring is coming and, punctually, the literary review Il libro delle 18.03 also returns. For an event that has always straddled the border, 2025, with Nova Gorica-Gorizia European Capital of Culture, can only be a special year. The title that sees the two cities finally united is for us the crowning, as for many other people and associations, on both sides of the border, of a path and a dialogue in which we have always, of course, believed, cultivating a thousand initiatives, without or with very few resources.

A path that we will continue to take even when 2025 is over, some spotlights will be turned off, some calls will have closed and some funding will have ceased.

But in the meantime, let’s enjoy it all, this year GO!2025, breaking down those obstacles that still persist, now more in our heads than on the ground, starting with the knowledge of the language and culture of our neighbor. Our European Capital of Culture is an extremely positive message for all of Europe where particularisms are prevailing, looks at a past that we all hoped was dead and buried, fears of a war close to our doorstep.

We will present the program of the spring edition of Il libro della 18.03on Saturday, March 22, at 11 a.m., in Nova Gorica, at the Libreria Caffè-Knjigarna kavarna Maks. Our guest will be the literary critic Ana Geršak who collaborates with numerous Italian and Slovenian newspapers, magazines and television networks. Ana, whom we thank for her availability, will help us in translating into Slovenian English and vice versa.
While Gorizia remains the center of the initiatives, the exhibition will also bring the GO!2025 logo to other locations in the area such as Sagrado, Gradisca d’Isonzo, Villa Codelli in Mossa and, of course, Nova Gorica.

There will be a total of ten meetings with the author, starting from Thursday 3 April. The review will end, as in recent years, in Sagrado, on May 3, with the delivery of the Roberto Visintin Prize, now in its fifth edition and organized and promoted by the Cultural Association Apertamente and the Foundation that bears the name of the young scholar who died prematurely a few years ago. The commission that will award the prize, composed of Emanuela Masseria (president), Mario Brandolin and Marco Menato, will complete its works, so many books have been received, when the program of the review will already be printed and circulated and we will know the name of the winner in progress.

For the rest, the review will see some welcome returns with new works: the majority will be new entries, even well-known. There will also be the usual Sunday lectio , which this spring will see Marzio G. Mian, journalist and writer who has carried out investigations and reports in 58 countries around the world, in Mossa. The author received the True Story Award in 2023, an award for Best International Reportage. Mian, a journalist affiliated with the Pulitzer Center in Washington, also founded the non-profit news company The Arctic Times Project (USA), which reports on the consequences of climate change in the Arctic region. His latest works include: White War, Maledetta Sarajevo (with Francesco Battistini), Volga Blues (2024).

Thanks to all those who have been supporting us for many years, in various capacities, and who also on this occasion wanted to be close to us, thus allowing us to carry out this project, known and appreciated even beyond our Region, of which we are proud.

We invite you to be, as always, numerous: we are waiting for you…