Thirteenth Edition Jury

Chiara Sgarbi is a bibliotherapist certified through the Master’s program in Bibliotherapy at the University of Verona. She is also the creator and host of the podcast Shelf for Mondadori Studios, which explores topics related to reading, stories,and everything revolving around books. Recently, for a few years, she hosted a reading-themed column on Radio Pico. On Instagram, where she is known as @chiara_sui_libri, she actively promotes reading. She currently lives in Berlin.

Born in the early 1980s in Asti and adopted by Bergamo, he grew up on a steady diet of comics and developed a strong passion for reading. He has been writing ever since he learned how, and with “Progetto Iskandar” he published several short stories included in Retrovisioni. Racconti di gioco a 8 bit and Vita Morte e Videogames, as well as the novella Ninna nanna, pecore e asteroidi, co-authored with Gianlorenzo Barollo. In the summer of 2024, he published the children’s fantasy novel La profezia delle Cinque Gocce, published by Pav Edizioni, which earned him 2nd place at the Premio Letterario Città di Ladispoli in the Young Adult (12–18 years) category.

Cecilia Alfier was born in Piove di Sacco, in the province of Padua, on March 27, 1993. After earning her high school diploma in scientific studies, she graduated with degrees in Modern Literature and Historical Sciences. Her master’s thesis, titled “L’incubo di Putin: Anna Politkovskaja, voce libera” (“Putin’s Nightmare: Anna Politkovskaya, a Free Voice”), was published in May 2022. Following her graduation from the Scuola Holden in Turin, Cecilia continued to live in Settimo Torinese. She has worked with a women-focused publishing house, through which she published a paranormal novel. She currently works in public administration, writes and plays chess in her free time, and collaborates with the podcast “I Pirati della Cultura”.

Giovanni “Gioz” Scarduelli (born 1992) is an author, illustrator, comic artist, and graphic designer. He has illustrated several children’s and young adult books, including Tana libera tutti by Walter Veltroni (Feltrinelli), Un sacchetto di biglie by Joseph Joffo (Rizzoli), Antologia di Spoon River by E.G. Masters (Mondadori), La casa di Paolo by Sara Loffredi (Rizzoli), and Yanez by Francesco Dimitri (Rizzoli).
His graphic novels and comics include Nikola Tesla, with text by Sergio Rossi (Beccogiallo)—winner of the 2019 Giancarlo Dosi Prize for science communication; Edward Hopper – Pittore del silenzio, with text by Sergio Rossi (Centauria); and Mark Rothko – Il miracolo della pittura, with text by Francesco Matteuzzi (Centauria). In 2025, he published Corpo a corpo (Terre di Mezzo), his first graphic novel as a sole creator.

Author of books primarily in the mystery and crime genre for children, young adults, and adults. She lives in a renovated building that used to be her grandmother’s cinema. A journalist by profession, she holds a degree in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Milan. Born under the sign of Gemini, she has had a passion for reading, writing, and thriller and noir stories since childhood. She holds a green belt in kung fu.