Mastrocola

Mastrocola was born in 1956 in Turin, where she taught Humanities in high schools until 2015. She has written comedies for children and published collections of poems, essays on 14^th and 16^th century Italian literature, and novels. Her works include: La gallina volante, (Guanda, 2000, Calvino Award for unpublished authors 1999, Selezione Campiello Award 2000, Rapallo-Carige Award 2001); Palline di pane, (Guanda, 2001, finalist for the Strega Prize 2001); Una barca nel bosco (Guanda, 2004, Campiello Award 2004); and Che animale sei? (Guanda, 2005). Her more recent publications include Non so niente di te (Einaudi 2013); L’esercito delle cose inutili (Einaudi, 2015); L’anno che non caddero le foglie (Guanda, 2016); and L’amore prima di noi (Einaudi, 2016). She has also written pamphlets on the school system and education generally: La scuola raccontata al mio cane (Guanda, 2004), Togliamo il disturbo. Saggio sulla libertà di non studiare (Guanda, 2011) and La passione ribelle (Laterza, 2015).