Paginauno

Paginauno is an independent Italian publishing and cultural project based in Milan. Rather than a conventional trade publisher, it presents itself as a wider intellectual enterprise that grew out of a creative writing school founded in 2003 and renamed Paginauno in 2005. In 2007 the project added a bimonthly magazine of political and cultural analysis, also called Paginauno, and in 2010 it expanded into book publishing under the Edizioni Paginauno imprint. The publishing house is therefore the youngest branch of a longer-running cultural initiative. The editorial identity of Paginauno is explicitly political and social in orientation. Its founders describe the project as a reaction against what they saw as an excessively inward-looking, 'navel-gazing' tendency in much Italian narrative — fiction that zoomed in on private life while losing the wide-angle lens capable of placing personal experience within a social and inevitably political context. Paginauno's stated aim is to publish narrative and non-fiction that reconnect individual stories with the social world, and to give writers a voice in Italian public and political debate. The catalogue is organised into several series, including narrative (narrativa), essays (saggistica), and distinctive lines such as 'Il bosco di latte', 'In utero – musicale', 'graphic novel', and 'La sposa del deserto'. Titles range from contemporary Italian fiction — for example Nelide Quarato's 'Legami slegati' — to rediscovered or translated political and social writing, such as Raymond Williams's 'The Battle for Manod' ('La battaglia per Manod'). The house also maintains a strong non-commercial dimension: it runs the magazine Paginauno, organises events and press activity, and has promoted campaigns such as 'Pagine contro la tortura'. Paginauno operates as an independent, privately held entity with no known parent group or stock listing. Its website provides a catalogue, author pages, distribution and ordering information, a code of ethics, and a reserved area, indicating a small but structured independent publisher. Its base in Milan places it within Italy's northern publishing and cultural scene, and its combination of school, magazine, and book imprint gives it a profile closer to a cultural association with a publishing arm than to a purely commercial publisher.

Paginauno's history begins before its existence as a publishing house. In 2003 a creative writing school was founded; in 2005 it took the name Paginauno. The project's founders describe its origins in long conversations, over a beer and a cigarette, about why so much Italian narrative had become 'navel-gazing' — using a zoom fixed on the private sphere and losing the wide-angle lens that could frame the personal within a social, and inevitably political, context. They also noted that writers had stopped making their voices heard in Italian social and political reality. In 2007 the project expanded with the launch of Paginauno, a bimonthly magazine of political and cultural analysis. The magazine gave the initiative a public platform and a regular publishing rhythm, and it remains one of the project's core activities. In 2010 the project broadened further by becoming a publishing house as well, under the Edizioni Paginauno name. This marked the transition from a school-and-magazine project to a full book publisher. The catalogue that developed includes narrative and essay series, along with distinctive lines such as 'Il bosco di latte', 'In utero – musicale', 'graphic novel', and 'La sposa del deserto'. Among the titles highlighted on the publisher's site are Nelide Quarato's novel 'Legami slegati' and Raymond Williams's 'La battaglia per Manod', a work of political fiction set in a Labour government's environment ministry. The house has also engaged in public campaigns, including 'Pagine contro la tortura' (Pages against torture), reflecting its politically engaged editorial identity. Its website structure — with sections for catalogue, authors, distribution, orders, a code of ethics, events, press review, press area, contacts, newsletter, and a reserved area — indicates a small but organised independent publisher with an active events and communications programme. Paginauno is based in Milan, Italy, and is described in public data as an association based in Milan. It operates independently, without a known parent company or stock market listing. Its identity remains that of a cultural project with a publishing arm, rather than a conventional commercial publisher.

• 2010

  The project expands into book publishing as Edizioni Paginauno.

• 2007

  Launch of Paginauno, a bimonthly magazine of political and cultural analysis.

• 2005

  The creative writing school takes the name Paginauno.

• 2003

  Creative writing school founded, the earliest root of the Paginauno project.

Independent Italian publisher and cultural project combining a writing school, a political-cultural magazine, and a book imprint, focused on socially and politically engaged narrative and non-fiction.

• Legami slegati

• La battaglia per Manod

• Paginauno magazine

1. 1Edizioni paginauno – homepageedizionipaginauno.it
2. 2Edizioni paginauno – chi siamoedizionipaginauno.it
3. 3Wikidata – Paginaunowikidata.org