Seven horror stories

Christian Antonini is an author of books for both children and adults, with a passion for history, adventure, and fantasy. He grew up surrounded by books, comics, and games. His novel Fuorigioco a Berlino (Giunti) won the Premio Bancarellino in 2017 and the Premio Il Gigante delle Langhe. In 2023, he was included in the Italian IBBY Honour List with La Musica nelle Ossa (Mondadori).

A screenwriter, director, writer and film critic, Manlio Castagna has also been involved in the artistic direction of the Giffoni Film Festival for more than 20 years. He made his debut in children’s fiction in 2018 with the bestselling Petrademone trilogy (Mondadori), which has been translated into several languages. Since then, he has explored many different genres: from historical fantasy with La notte delle malombre (The Night of the Malombre) and Draconis Chronicon, to horror with Goodwill and Le Belve (The Beasts), passing through the “story” of cinema with the manual 116 film da vedere prima dei 16 anni (116 Films To See Before You’re 16) and the novel Dedalo & Dharma, up to social noir with Barriera (all for the Mondadori group). La reincarnazione delle sorelle Klun (The Reincarnation of the Klun Sisters) and Prova a non dormire (Try Not to Sleep) are his adult fiction books. In 2022, he made his film debut as a director and screenwriter with “Il viaggio degli eroi”, produced by Rai Cinema and rewarded with record audience numbers on Rai1.

Born in Genoa, where she lives and writes books, she is a teacher and communication consultant, and she runs narrative writing workshops, including the Lazy Writers Support Group (GSSP), created in 2014 and entirely online. After publishing several books, she takes on writing one of the Seven Horror Stories in the book edited by Manlio Castagna and published by Piemme.

Vernante Pallotti (Verona, 1998) is an Italian screenwriter, writer, and journalist. Her name was given to her by mistake and means "She who brings spring." An author of television and film projects for young audiences, Vernante believes that the most intelligent thing to do today, along with planting trees, is to give importance to children and teenagers. She does this by writing for them. Banshee, selected for the Milano Pitch, is her debut novel.

Born in Ovada in 1977, Tommaso Percivale is an author of children's books. He lives and writes on an isolated hilltop surrounded by rocks, wind, woods and roe deer. Passionate about stories, sleight of hand, comics and games, he is a curious writer and, as such, tackles various genres, ranging from historical fiction to science fiction, from adventures to thrillers, even touching on the field of non-fiction. He writes to excite and stimulate deep reflections of an ethical, philosophical and social nature. Freedom, courage and rebellion are the themes he holds most dear.

Davide Sarti, a graduate in Japanese language and culture, is a manga translator from Japanese. For years, he has published short comics in magazines and fanzines. He is the author of an essay on the graphic and narrative characteristics of Japanese comics. After various publications, he takes on writing one of the Seven Horror Stories in the book edited by Manlio Castagna and published by Piemme.

Francesca Tassini is a screenwriter, author of documentaries, short films, stories, and mockumentaries.

In 2004, she obtained a Diploma in Screenwriting from the Civica School of Cinema, TV, and New Media in Milan and began working as an assistant and collaborator for Sandrone Dazieri, a writer who was at the time the director of Mondadori's crime novels and is now the head editor for some Mediaset TaoDue TV series.

In 2007, she won the First Prize for Best Original Screenplay at the International Film Festival of Bra with “Spighe.”

While continuing to work on parallel writing projects, including several screenplays for feature films and a novel in development, she embarked on a career in copywriting: first for Mediaset RTI, then for a Swiss company, and later in an agency in Milan.

She is passionately involved in protest and media guerrilla, particularly regarding international law, collaborating on various global visibility projects.