the Gramma-Corriere.it project was born

A new brand arrives on the Italian publishing market: Feltrinelli Gramma was born on 1 September, directed by Joseph Russo who for 23 years was editorial director of Neri Pozza, where he published bestsellers such as The girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, rediscovered authors such as Giuseppe Berto and Romain Gary, won the Strega prize with Two lives by Emanuele Trevi. From Neri Pozza also arrives Roberto Cotroneo, editor of Italian fiction, from Sellerio Marcella Marini for the foreign, while Daniela Pagani will take care of communication. Gramma is another piece in that frame of growth and development that Feltrinelli is going through with an energetic step. Russo told «Corriere» how the new brand will be.

Let’s start with the name. Why Feltrinelli Gramma?

«It comes from the Greek: sign, writing. Recently from Neri Pozza I published the latest writings of Émile Benveniste according to which writing is the fundamental turning point of the West, the moment in which language ceases to be mere oral communication and becomes something much more powerful that has invention at its center , the creation. Writing brings singularity into play, it requires isolating oneself from the noise of the world which today is stronger than ever. There is a beautiful phrase by Anna Maria Ortese: “Writing is seeking calm, and sometimes finding it. It’s going home. The same as reading…”. Today we should be deaf to the infinity of messages that communication imposes on us by any means. The activity of writing, and also of reading, is this».

How does it translate into Feltrinelli Gramma’s editorial line?

«A slogan stands out on the Feltrinelli website: necessary books. Today, in the confusion of messages that almost always produce conflict, we risk losing the new worlds that emerge and are completely evident. Feltrinelli manages to grasp them, Gramma will be a reinforcement of the literary identity of the publishing house. We will make Italian and foreign fiction, non-fiction, travel literature, memoirs, recoveries from the past of works that still speak to us. We will cover all sectors of the publishing market: thirty titles a year starting from May 2024».

Any contracts already signed?

«Yes, but to say it now is premature. The idea is to build a list of literary authors, even if it’s always very complicated to narrow this down. One of the fundamental aspects is the care of writing, and then the search for an epochal truth, that is, a truth with respect to the spirit of the time. Today autofiction has developed, but sometimes it ends in an extreme diarism where, even when telling very intense stories, universality is completely absent. In Neri Pozza we also published entertainment books, based however on a cognitive value, such as The girl with the Pearl Earring, a novel that manages to penetrate Vermeer’s era much better than an essay. No book was characterized by pure and simple entertainment: a work had to contain a cognitive value or an evident literary value”.

And this, then, will you also do with Gramma?

“Of course, but I think that’s the publisher’s job. Either a publisher educates by re-proposing access to the history of culture in a new way, or shows what the present time offers from the point of view of literary values. He can’t do otherwise if he wants to build something that contributes to the canon of literature. We would like to be the pole of attraction for quality writers in Italy: it is an invitation to all those who believe that choosing a publisher is not simply a question of positioning on the market, but sharing a project which here, in the Feltrinelli group, is supported by organization, by efficiency, by strength».

Does that mean you’re going to be aggressively shopping?

«I’m not used to this, I respect the attachment of the authors to their publisher. It is simply an invitation to consider publishing as a project. The publisher is not just the house where an author sits down to sell books, it’s a question of being together on the basis of the same feeling with respect to time and with respect to the tasks of culture».

What nonfiction will you do?

«I really like a certain type of narrative non-fiction, I’m thinking of a series of reports on places of conflict, a book that explains what really happens in Russia. Another place of essayism is critical thinking. It is not possible that we do not notice in a radical and evident way the enormous crises of liberal democracies. It is necessary to reflect, think, not be prey to the anguish of the apocalyptic messages of the square. Karl Marx wrote: “I will not say that I have too much faith in the present; and if, however, I do not doubt it, it is only because his desperate situation fills me with hope”.

She was the absolute dominus in Neri Pozza. Here is a publisher with his balance, with Gianluca Foglia responsible for the editorial content of the whole group.

«I have never loved the distinction between large and small publishers. There are small ones who do a great editorial job, others who produce books of no literary interest, just as the opposite happens. Why should an effective industrial organization be in contradiction with quality? Indeed, it should make it even more capable of penetrating the market. This is a condition that I feel in the Feltrinelli group. Then I think I have ample guarantee with respect to Gramma’s absolute autonomy, which is the preliminary condition. Naturally there is the need for coordination and Gianluca Foglia will be able to balance the different brands in a collaboration that is also competitive, which is, moreover, a reason for growth of the group, not reduction. We are aware that we are joining the great tradition of a publisher that has great authors in its catalogue. This tradition must be respected. Respect it and innovate it. After all, this is the task that has been given to us».

The identity of a publishing house also passes through the graphic design. What will Gramma books be like?

«The paper, the lettering, the images: they are decisive choices. It was one of the aspects that made Neri Pozza’s fortune. We’ll do something that doesn’t fall within Feltrinelli’s recent graphic tradition, not because it’s not beautiful, but just to distinguish ourselves. It will also be innovative and radically different from all the others».

Social networks are not only synonymous with immediacy and confusion. In some cases they have been decisive for the promotion of authors, including literary ones, such as “Madness” by Patrick McGrath or “A life like many” by Hanya Yanagihara, much loved by younger booktokers. ..

«It is an extremely interesting phenomenon because the problem is not the means but the contents. When the themes that interest young people, such as the conflict between the self and the world, the construction of a single identity and so on, are expressed in literature without falsehood, with a style that supports that truth, they are immediately striking. Reading is not simply the immediate “like”. It requires a break, you have to stop, reflect».

He spent 23 years at the head of Neri Pozza. In what spirit did he leave him?

«The journey made with Neri Pozza is extraordinary, but accomplished. Originally the brand had been part of the great literary tradition of the second half of the twentieth century, then it had suffered a period of decline and we have rebuilt it over the years. Starting over with a challenge like Gramma, in a publishing house that made the history of Italian publishing, was too exciting to give up».

You began in Naples, with Guida editore, where you were the first to publish Cormac McCarthy: «Cavalli Selvaggia».

«It was a sophisticated brand, especially of high philosophy. When Mario Spagnol in Longanesi, who also had Neri Pozza, called me, the impact with a publisher with different souls, literary and commercial, was strong. I remember that when he asked me what we could do for Neri Pozza, since he had published books on spirituality, I proposed the ecclesial dogmatics of Karl Barth, in 6 volumes. He called the other editors and made me repeat it in front of them. I did so, aware of going towards the gallows. Spagnol looked at everyone and said: “Here, this is how a publishing house goes bankrupt”. When the others left, we began a long discussion on the commentary on Barth’s Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, which he knew very well. It was the first, important lesson».

The faces

Giuseppe Russo, 70, was born in Naples. Graduated in philosophy, he began working in the world of books at Guida Editori. In the 90s he was Mario Spagnol’s deputy in the Longanesi Group and from 2000 to 2023 editorial director of Neri Pozza, of the Athesis group.
Gramma is part of the Feltrinelli publishing hub, which includes Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, Gribaudo, Sem, Apogeo, Crocetti, Marsilio, Marsilio Arte, Sonzogno. The new brand will have Roberto Cotroneo as Italian fiction editor and Marcella Marini for foreign fiction