For the image of the festival we were looking for a unique, unmistakable gaze and signature.

For precisely this reason we turned to Antonio Sualzo Vincenti, the extraordinary Umbrian author and illustrator of numerous books and graphic novels for children.

We knew in our hearts that we were on more than safe ground.

Sualzo has been a friend of Birba’s for many years; he and his wife Silvia Vecchini have been to our library many times to meet with the children and present their books to our little readers.

We had no doubt that he would understand and be able to give lively visual life to the theme we had chosen for the Festival in a way that was both original and exactly right.

And that is just what we has done!

A step forward! is for BIRBA, the longing for discovery and transformation which stories and fairy tales, represented so whimsically by by the ingenious and daring Puss in Boots marching towards Assisi, express and foster within us.

Our whole city is looking forward “to breathing life into stories.”

The Mischief of Reading will transform Assisi, for four days, in a place where stories, wonder, and imagination will be center stage.

After that nothing will ever be the same. 

Assisi, Wednesday, October 25th, 2017

SUALZO (Antonio Vincenti, 1969) one time saxophonist and self-taught illustrator, works as an author and illustrator for many Italian publishing houses. His books have been published in France, Portugal, Croatia, Switzerland, Poland, New Zealand, Malaysia, Japan, China, South Korea, and the USA.

Antonio Vincenti e Silvia Vecchini will be guests at the Festival where they will present their most recent works: A Phone Call with a Fish, a picture book published by Topipittori and The Red Zone, a graphic novel which supports “Project: Red Zone”, a theater workshop for children in Montefortino, one of the towns affected by the 2016 Earthquake in Central Italy.