On Wednesday 28 October, at 3.00 pm (CET), at the Boccherini – Sala Parlami Primo Piano, Elisabetta Dami and Pierdomenico Baccalario will take part in a discussion dedicated to writing for children and the question: what does it mean to write stories for children?
The event is part of the activities of ‘A Caccia di Storie’, the talent-scouting project for young authors of fiction for children and young adults, promoted by Lucca Comics & Games in collaboration with Book on a Tree. The event will be an opportunity to discover the world of children’s literature through the experiences of two leading figures in the field.
A Caccia di Storie – A talent-scouting project for young writers of children’s and young adult fiction
‘A Caccia di Storie’ follows in the footsteps of ‘Tessitori di Sogni’, a project dedicated to debut authors which, between 2009 and 2012, trained 40 young writers, 11 of whom went on to work as authors, editors and professionals with major publishers such as Piemme, Rizzoli and Fanucci.
In 2017, Lucca Comics & Games, in collaboration with Book on a Tree, relaunched the talent-scouting project dedicated to future writers of children’s and young adult fiction, focusing its activities on creative residencies led by authors and industry professionals.
Until 2021, the project was organised in collaboration with the Carlo Collodi National Foundation. In 2025, it was carried out in partnership with the Municipality of Camaiore and with the support of Pluriservizi Camaiore.
In 2026, to mark the 60th anniversary of Lucca Comics & Games, the residency returns to Lucca with a major new development: Elisabetta Dami will be the project’s patron. An Italian writer and author of children’s books, Dami is known worldwide for having created the character Geronimo Stilton.
Each year, ten young talents are selected to take part in intensive seminars, workshops, practical exercises and in-depth sessions dedicated to researching and crafting good stories. The training programme covers topics such as world-building, ghostwriting, serialised storytelling, editing, promotion and social media, contracts and rights, pitching and presentation, and illustration: a comprehensive immersion in the world of storytelling.
Teaching and training are led by some of the most prominent Italian and international authors, editors and agents. Publishers are investing in this talent pool, and every year at least one of the stories by the selected scholarship recipients is offered a publishing contract by Book on a Tree, to be subsequently published by Edizioni Piemme – Il Battello a Vapore, a partner in the initiative.
The various editions have produced the novels Perdenti con le ali by Carlotta Cubeddu (2019), MySelf – Conosco i tuoi segreti by Giada Pavesi (2020), La casa ai confini del mondo by Matteo Francini (2021), Le ragazze del fiume by Alessandra Ubezio (2022), Il mistero di Villa Polifemo by Maria Elisa Aloisi (2024), Fuga dal Paradiso by Sara De Martino (2024) and Ritorno al passato by Chiara Bonazzi (2026). In addition to the winners, more than half of the scholarship holders who took part in the project now work in the publishing industry, collaborating with Book on a Tree.
For further information, please visit the website: www.acacciadistorie.it
