POETRY | Gabriella Ghermandi

Gabriella Ghermandi was born in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in 1956, and she moved to Italy
in 1979. Since then she has lived in Bologna, birthplace of her father. In 1999 she won the 1st Prize at the Eks&Tra Literary Prize for migrant writers, organized by Fara Editore. Several Ghermandi’s works have been published in journals, magazines and collections. She writes and interprets her storytelling performances following the metaphor’s art, typical of the Ethiopic cultural tradition.
For two years she has been the art director of the Evocamondi Festival, World Music and Storytelling event, organized in Bentivoglio, nearby Bologna and she was also one of the coordinators of the Paths crossroads events with migrant writers.
She is also one of the founders (and member of the Editorial Board) of the online literary journal El Ghibli,.
In 2007 her debut novel Queen of pearls and flowers, based on the stories of the Ethiopian patriots fighting against Italian occupation, was published by Donzelli.