Erri De Luca

Erri De Luca (born 1950, Naples) is an Italian novelist, translator and poet. He has been recognized by critic Giorgio De Rienzo of Corriere della Sera as "the writer of the decade". He is also known for his opposition to the Lyon-Turin high speed train line, and is being sued for having called for its sabotage. On October 19, 2015 Erri De Luca was cleared of inciting criminal damage. He reacted to the not-guilty verdict declaring that "An injustice has been avoided."

Again, with "The Nightshift Belongs to the Stars" he was screenwriter and actor, directed by Edoardo Ponti. The short was in the short list for the 2013 Academy Awards, and won an award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. In the same year, Erri De Luca began writing the story for the documentary film, "Trees that Walk", and in 2014 he wrote and interpreted, "A Musical Imprinting," a musical biography about his life.

He appeared in a cameo role (of a mechanic) in the film L'isola, by Costanza Quadriglio. Erri De Luca's debut as screenwriter and leading actor was in the short film Di là del vetro (Beyond the Glass), presented at The Venice Film Festival 2011, Italy, World Premiere. "A night-time conversation between a man and his mother and a trip down memory lane through the phantoms of life. Erri De Luca opens the door to his house, transporting us into the universe of the past."

In France, he received the France Culture Prize in 1994 for Aceto, arcobaleno, the Laure Bataillon Award in 2002 for Tre cavalli and, also in 2002, the Fémina Étranger for Montedidio, translated in English as God's Mountain. In 2010 he was given the German international literary Petrarca-Preis. He has been a member of the jury at the Cannes Festival in 2003. In 2013, he received the European Prize for Literature. In 2016, he received European Book Prize for his novel "Le plus et le moins".

Although he never stopped writing since he was 20, his first book was published in 1989, Non ora, non qui (Not now, not here). Many more books followed, best sellers in Italy, France and Israel, his work being translated and published in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, USA, Brazil, Poland, Norway, Danmark, Romania, Greece, Lithuania, and more. He has himself translated several books of the Bible into Italian like Exodus, Jonah, Ecclesiastes, Ruth, and explored various aspects of Judaism, as a non-believer.

Upon completing high school in 1968 Erri De Luca joined the radical left-wing movement Lotta Continua. After the organization's disbanding he left political involvement. He worked as a blue collar worker at the Fiat factory in Turin and at the Catania airport. He also was a truck driver and a mason, working at job sites in Italy, France and Africa. He rode relief convoys in Yugoslavia during the war between 1993 and 1999.