“Talking about poetry today still makes sense, indeed it has more than ever. In a world deafened by noise and exhausted by the complexity of problems, dominated by images and technology, poetry is an indispensable good, an effective antidote to language degradation, a way to keep the word alive and to defend it from the prevailing banalization. "
This is the conviction of the annual "Città di Arenzano" Poetry Prize that “Unitre” Association of Arenzano and Cogoleto, with the support of Municipality, organizes since 2008 with the aim to meke known the most significant authors of the contemporary scene but, above all, to educate in poetry.
The organizers' dream and hope is also to bring the great poets back to our country, as in the days of the literary salon of Lucia Morpurgo Rodocanachi, whom the award is named, Around the 1930s she welcomed in her "pink house" in Arenzano with her husband, the painter Paolo Stamaty Rodocanachi, poets such as: Eugenio Montale, Adriano Grande, Angelo Barile and Camillo Sbarbaro.
The chosen formula follows models already released with success in our country, such as, for example, the Camaiore Award, the Lericipea or the Metauro.
A technical jury, composed by the poet Umberto Piersanti and the literary critics Roberto Galaverni and Stefano Verdino, selects the works of three authors among those who have published a collection of poems in the two years preceding the edition. They are, however, the 31 members of the popular jury, people of different ages and professions, to proclaim the winner during a closing ceremony, after the public reading of the verses by the finalist authors.
In the title of the "Luci a mare" award, there is a reference to Lucia Rodocanachi (Lucia amare – Loving Lucia), to the sea with its lights in the seasons and day changing and to the fishermen's lamps.
Since 2009, this competition has been reserved for the students of primary school (the last three courses) and secondary school degree pupils in the belief that the teaching of poetic writing can play a significant role in the psychological, emotional and critical education of students, as well as in linguistic and literary education.
In support of the initiative, during the year, poetry teaching laboratories are activated in schools to develop the expressive skills of the participants and to guide them in writing their compositions.
The winning and recommended poems are displayed in the shop windows of the town, the weeks preceding the closing ceremony of the award.
From the eighth edition, “Città di Arenzano" poetry prize has been enriched with a section open to all young people from Arenzano and Cogoleto who are between 14 and 29 years old. Two sections (14-19; 20-29) in which they can compete for free with a collection of thematic poems, which are read and evaluated by the same critic jury of the “Città di Arenzano” Poetry Prize. In addition to the prizes for the winners, an intensive poetry workshop, free of charge, is organized for all participants (approximately one week in July or August). Here, there is the opportunity to work and reflect on their works accompanied by training advice from the prize’s literary critics.
