Grazia Ritrovata Brings Grazia Deledda Centenary Project to Rebeccu
A cultural initiative dedicated to Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda has launched in Rebeccu, Sassari, marking one hundred years since the author received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Titled Grazia Ritrovata, the project explores the author’s roots and her literary footprint under the artistic direction of Valeria Orani. The multidisciplinary program examines how geographic origin shapes identity without boxing writers into cultural peripheries.
Sonita Sarker and the Postcolonial Reading of Sardinia
Among the leading voices in the project is Sonita Sarker, professor emerita of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and of English literature at Macalester College in Minnesota. Sarker has studied Deledda’s work through feminist and postcolonial frameworks. In her essay Grazia Deledda: From Island to Continent and Never Back Again, published in the volume Women Writing Race, Nation, and History: N/native, Sarker frames Sardinia not as a cultural periphery, but as a privileged observatory for evaluating modern identity and the tension between center and margin.
Meilogu Workshops and International Symposia Scheduled
The project moves next to the Meilogu region on October 28 and 29, 2026, where Sarker will join playwright Nalini Vidoolah Mootoosamy for a workshop titled Tradurre il sentimento. Participants will work with short texts by Deledda to treat translation as a creative medium that bridges languages and personal histories. The initiative then shifts to New York on December 10 and 11, 2026, featuring a symposium at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the CUNY Graduate Center and a screening of Peter Marcias’ film Quasi Grazia at New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò. Produced by 369gradi, the endeavor connects local Sardinian communities with international scholarship to reposition island literature on a global stage.
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