As part of the Week of the Italian Language in the World ( SLIM 2025), the event “Laughing Beyond Borders: reading and translating Stefano Benni,” a heartfelt tribute to this important figure in contemporary Italian literature, was held at the University “Goce Delchev” in Shtip, North Macedonia.
Speaking at this “Bar Under the Sea” were Professor Jovana Karanikikj Josimovska, Moreno Zella, First Secretary of the Italian Embassy in Skopje, and Zhivko Grozdanovski, President of the Macedonian Writers’ Association and translator of some of Benni’s works.
Zella recalled the importance of Stefano Benni’s literary legacy, his critical force conveyed with irony, and the role he maintains in Italian cultural history.
Grozdanovski recounted how he became fond of Benni’s poems and other works since his university days through his beloved professor Liljana Uzunovikj.
The event concluded with a bilingual reading of some of Stefano Benni’s short stories by Italian-speaking Macedonian students, a custom that, as Professor Karanikikj Josimovska also mentioned, was much loved and practiced by the author himself.
A moment of cross-cultural literary dialogue, in the name of creativity and the value of humor in Italian literature.
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