Thrinakìa, one of the multiple landing places of the Greek hero Ulysses in his pilgrimage, the island of the sun which is not located either to the east or to the west, today an emblematic metaphor that invites to tell life stories lived in Sicily, is a microcosm of autobiographical writings that transfigure human experiences into a poetic image of the world.
Thrinakìa’s contemporary writings represent a plurality of lived worlds, their poetic heritage does not lie in the search for stories that narrate the return of an epic hero, but in the desire of a humanity of men and women to share and arouse emotions, with their sufferings and joys, in search of stories that show us the meaning of everything and of life.
The Thrinakìa prize helps us to rethink an insularity that goes beyond the separation between the island and the continent, between a physical and existential space enclosed in itself that limits and circumscribes our vision of the world, and invites us to cross the ocean of life walking towards possible destinies of our humanity, recognizing and preserving those values that are beneficial for the relationship with ourselves and the world.
Literary awards remembering Sicily
The Thrinakìa International prize is an integral part of the ateliers of the autobiographical imagination , the social and cultural animation project directed by the sociologist Orazio Maria Valastro, created in collaboration with institutions and educational agencies in order to support the experience of narration and autobiographical writing through the sharing of a pedagogy of memory and imagination, and an ethics of sensitive listening to oneself and the other.
Thrinakìa was born in 2012 in order to solicit the participation of people who wish to experience autobiographical writing, stimulating the narrative identities of the authors and authors through the memory and imagination of Sicily. These memories do not only represent testimonies of great historical, cultural and social interest, but in addition they possess a creative energy and a generative bearing of meaning that calls for sensitive listening to oneself and the other.
The award is divided into five sections:
- Autobiographies – the narration of one’s life spent in Sicily;
- Autobiographical stories – the story of a significant life experience lived in Sicily;
- Travel diaries – the narration of a travel experience in Sicily;
- Biographies – the story of the life story of a person lived in Sicily;
- Poems – a verse poem entitled L’Isola, dedicated to Thrinakìa.
Thrinakìa: the island of the sun
The ethical foundations of the action of the voluntary organization of Le Stelle in Tasca, registered in the OdV general register of the Sicilian Region in the socio-cultural educational section, have at heart respect for life and the human person, and the value of citizenship of the history of people and communities. The promoted activities, annual autobiographical writing workshops, reading meetings and listening to autobiographical writings, the international Thrinakìa prize and the Archive of Sicilian memory and imagination, wish to share a participatory experience where existence becomes the elaboration of a thought on life capable of generating solidarity and reciprocity, feelings based on awareness of self and other recognition.