Feltrinelli’s new challenge: the birth of Project Gramma

A brand new arrival on the Italian publishing market: Feltrinelli Gramma was born on September 1, with direction Joseph Russo who for 23 years was Neri Pozza’s managing editor, publishing bestsellers such as The girl with the pearl earring Written by Tracy Chevalier Rediscovered authors such as Giuseppe Berto and Romain Jarry have won the Striga Prize with two lives by Emmanuel Trevi. From Neri Pozza also arrives Roberto Cotronio, editor of Italian literature, from Celerio Marcella Marini for the foreigner, while Daniela Pagani will take care of communication. Gramma is another piece in the framework of growth and development that Feltrinelli is taking in vigorous stride. Russo told Corriere what the new brand would be like.

Let’s start with the name. Why Feltrinelli Gramma?

It comes from the Greek: to sign, to write. Recently published by Neri Bouza, the latest writings of Emile Benveniste according to which writing is the essential turning point in the West, the moment when language ceases to be mere oral communication and becomes something much more powerful that has an invention at its center, creation. Writing brings uniqueness to play, it requires isolating yourself from the noise of the world which today is stronger than ever. There is a beautiful phrase by Ana Maria Ortiz: “Writing seeks tranquility and sometimes it finds it. It is going home. The same as reading…”. Today we must be deaf to the infinity of the messages that communication in any medium imposes on us. The activity of writing, as well as reading, is this ».

How does it translate to Feltrinelli Gramma’s editorial line?

A slogan on the Feltrinelli website stands out: Essential Books. Today, in the confusion of the messages that produce conflict almost always, we risk missing the new realms that emerge and are so obvious. Feltrinelli manages to get it right, and Gramma will be a reinforcement of the publishing house’s literary identity. We will do Italian and foreign novels, non-fiction, travel literature, memoirs and retrospectives of works that still speak to us. We will cover all sectors of the publishing market: thirty books per year from May 2024 ».

Have any contracts already been signed?

«Yes, but to say now is premature. The idea is to build a list of literary authors, even if it can always be difficult to narrow this down. One of the essential aspects is the interest in writing, and then the search for historical truth, that is, truth in relation to the zeitgeist. Today’s self-literature has evolved, but sometimes it ends with an intense diary in which, even when telling very intense stories, comprehensiveness is completely absent. At Neri Pozza we have also published entertaining books, based on cognitive value, such as The girl with the pearl earring, a novel that penetrates Vermeer’s age much better than an essay. No book is characterized by pure and simple entertainment: the work must have clear cognitive or literary value.

And which, then, will you also do with Gramma?

“Of course, but I believe that this is the job of the publisher. Either the publisher should educate by re-proposing access to the history of culture in a new way, or show what the present time offers from the point of view of literary values. He cannot do otherwise if he wants to build something It contributes to the canon of literature. We would like to be a magnet for good writers in Italy: it is an invitation to all those who believe that the choice of a publisher is not simply a matter of position on the market, but the participation of a project here, in the Feltrinelli group, supported by organization, by competence, by force ».

Does this mean that you will shop aggressively?

“I’m not used to it, I respect the authors’ association with their publisher. It is simply an invitation to consider publishing as a project. The publisher is not only the house in which the author sits to sell books, it is a matter of being together on the basis of the same feeling in relation to time and in relation to the tasks of culture ».

What are you going to do?

“I really like a certain kind of non-fiction, I think of a series of reports about conflict places, a book that explains what’s really going on in Russia. Another place for the essay is critical thinking. It is not possible not to notice in a radical and clear way the colossal crises of the liberal democracies. It is necessary to think, and to think, not to fall prey to the agony of the apocalyptic messages in the arena. Karl Marx wrote: “I will not say that I have much faith in the present; however, if I do not doubt it, it is only because its desperate situation fills me with hope.

She was the absolute controller in Neri Buza. Here is a publisher with credits, with Gianluca Foglia in charge of editorial content for the entire collection.

“I never liked the distinction between big and small publishers. There are youngsters who do great publishing work, and others who produce books of no literary interest to them, just as the opposite happens. Why should an efficient industrial organization conflict with quality? In fact, it should make it more capable of penetrating the market. This is a condition I feel in the Feltrinelli group. Then I think I have sufficient guarantees as to Gramma’s absolute independence, which is the initial condition. Naturally, coordination is needed and Gianluca Foglia will be able to balance the different brands in a competitive collaboration as well, which is, moreover, a reason for the group’s growth rather than its reduction. We know we join the great tradition of a publisher that has great authors in its catalog. This tradition must be respected. Respect it and create it. After all, this is the mission entrusted to us ».

The identity of the publishing house also runs through the graphic design. How will Gram books be?

Paper, Letters, Pictures: Crucial Choices. It was one of the aspects that made Neri Buza fortune. We’ll do something that doesn’t fall into the tradition of modern Feltrinelli painting, not because it’s not pretty, but just to set ourselves apart. It will also be innovative and radically different from all the others.”

Social networks are not only synonymous with immediacy and confusion, but in some cases have been decisive in the promotion of authors, including literature, such as “Madness” by Patrick McGrath or “A Life Like Many” by Hania Yanagihara, so loved by smaller bookmakers. ..

“It is a very interesting phenomenon because the problem is not the means but the contents. When topics of interest to young people, such as the struggle between self and the world, the construction of one identity and so on, are expressed in literature without falsehood, in a style that supports this fact, it is immediately amazing. Reading isn’t just an instant ‘like’. It requires a break, you have to stop, think.”

He spent 23 years at the helm of Neri Pozza. With what spirit did he leave?

“Nery Buza’s journey is unusual, but complete. Originally part of the great literary tradition of the second half of the twentieth century, the brand then suffered a period of decline and we have rebuilt it over the years. Starting over with a challenge like Gramma, in a publishing house that made Italian publishing history, it was too exciting to give up ».

It began in Naples, with the editor of Guida, where I was the first to publish Cormac McCarthy: «Cavalli Selvaggia».

“It was a sophisticated, special brand with a high philosophy. When Mario Spagnol contacted me at Longanesi, who also had Neri Pozza, the influence was strong with a publisher of different spirits, literary and commercial. I remember that when he asked me what we could do for Neri Boza, since he had published books on spirituals, I suggested Karl Barth’s Ecclesiastical Dogmatism, in 6 vols. He called the other editors and had me repeat it in front of them. I did, conscious of going towards the noose. Spaniol looked at everyone and said: “Here, this is how the publishing house goes bankrupt.” When the others had left, we began a long discussion about commenting on Barth’s Epistle to the Romans, which he knew well. It was the first and most important lesson.”

faces

Giuseppe Russo, 70, was born in Naples. Graduated in Philosophy, he started working in the world of books at Guida Editori. In the 1990s he was Mario Spaniol’s deputy in the Longanesi group and from 2000 to 2023 managing editor of Neri Pozza of the Athesis group.
Gramma is part of the Feltrinelli Publishing Centre, which includes Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, Gribaudo, Sem, Apogeo, Crocetti, Marsilio, Marsilio Arte and Sonzogno. The new brand will occupy Roberto Cutroneo as Italian fiction editor and Marcella Marini for foreign literature