The Conversations with the protagonists of contemporary culture are back: the calendar of events

Le Conversazioni , the international festival conceived by Antonio Monda and Davide Azzolini , celebrates its 20th edition with a rich calendar of events between Italy and the United States, culminating – as per tradition – in the evocative settings of Capri and Naples, from June 27 to July 6 , with eight evenings dedicated to the protagonists of contemporary culture . For the 2025 edition in Capri, guests will be Daniele Mencarelli (Friday, June 27), Manuel Vilas (Saturday, June 28), Annabelle Hirsch (Sunday, June 29), Ari Aster (Friday, July 4), Anne Applebaum (Saturday, July 5), Bennett Miller (Sunday, July 6). In Naples, the festival returns to Foqus-Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli (7 pm) with Fulminacci (Monday, June 30) and Massimo Cacciari (Tuesday, July 1).

The theme chosen for 2025 is “Taboo” , an invitation to explore what, in different cultures, eras and social contexts, has been marginalized, forbidden or censored. A journey through the boundaries of the sayable and the unsayable, the licit and the illicit, to question what is still considered a taboo today, how moral and cultural limits change, and what role art, literature, critical thinking and creativity have in overcoming – or preserving – those boundaries. All meetings are free entry until seats are filled.

Le Conversazioni Capri 2025 is presented by Dazzle Communication, in collaboration with the Municipality of Capri, with the support of Siae and Fondazione Lottomatica, and with the contribution of Persol, Generali and Acea as official sponsors, with the support of the Grand Hotel Quisisana and with ntdesign, Netcongress and Hotel Punta Tragara as partners of the festival. Thanks for their precious support in Rome, Milan and New York to the sponsors Eni, Intesa Sanpaolo and Fondazione Carla Fendi.

The program For two weekends, in Capri , in Piazzetta Tragara at sunset (7 pm), writers and directors will alternate in dialogue with Antonio Monda: on Friday 27 June the Roman poet and narrator Daniele Mencarelli will open the festival; followed, on Saturday 28 June, by the Spanish writer Manuel Vilas , finalist for the Planeta Prize and winner of the Nadal Prize with the novel Nosotros in 2023. Sunday 29 June will be the turn of Annabelle Hirsch, a Franco-German journalist and writer, author of the book “ A history of women in 100 objects ” (Corbaccio editions), an anthology that offers an all-female reading of history.

On Monday 30th June (7pm) the festival moves to Naples in the Corte dell'Arte of Foqus-Fondazione Quartieri Spagnoli where the singer-songwriter Fulminacci will be a guest while Tuesday 1 July (7pm) Massimo Cacciari will be the protagonist of the conversation with Antonio Monda .

The second Capri weekend of meetings in Piazzetta Tragara will open on Friday 4th July with the American director and screenwriter Ari Aster who in 2025 he presented his new film Eddington, with Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, at the Cannes Film Festival.

On Saturday 5 July, the protagonist together with Monda will be Anne Applebaum, an American journalist and historian, author of fundamental essays on totalitarianism, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 2004. In 2024 she received the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels for her commitment to the defense of democracy.

On Sunday 6 July the festival will close with a protagonist of American cinema, director Bennett Miller, known for films such as Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011) and Foxcatcher (2014), which earned him two Oscar nominations for best director.

The beginning of the year appointments Conversations 2025 began in January with a series of international meetings that spanned Rome, Milan, and New York, where they will resume from September until the end of the year.

In Rome , in collaboration with the Maxxi – National Museum of 21st Century Arts, meetings with Jonathan Safran Foer, Pupi Avati, Nicole Krauss and Sandro Veronesi took place. At Palazzo Merulana, the protagonists were Nicola Lagioia and Melania Mazzucco, while in the gardens of the Hotel de Russie it was Maurizio Molinari.

In Milan , for the first time in collaboration with Triennale Milano, Antonio Monda spoke with Walter Siti and Gabriele Salvatores.

In New York , as usual, the events took place in prestigious venues. Laurie Anderson was the protagonist at the New-York Historical Society; Garth Risk Hallberg at the New York Society Library; Joshua Cohen, Siri Hustvedt and Anthony Appiah at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of New York University.

The 2025 calendar confirms once again the strong identity of a widespread festival that ranges across different cities and nations. An international traveling festival, a tireless laboratory of ideas that today counts hundreds of guests and that, since 2006, has organized events in New York, Washington, Bogota, Paris, Milan, Rome, Naples, Capri and Palermo.

Many names of international cultural protagonists have taken part in past editions of Le Conversazioni. Among the many we remember: Jonathan Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides, David Foster Wallace, Martin Amis, Ethan Coen, Michael Cunningham, Ian McEwan , Chuck Palahniuk, Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, Patrick McGrath, EL Doctorow, Jonathan Safran Foer, Joshua Ferris, David Byrne, Colum McCann, Michael Chabon, Elizabeth Strout, Donna Tartt, Hanif Kureishi, Nicole Krauss, Colm Toibin, Anna Funder, Junot Diaz, Rachel Kushner, Don DeLillo, Erica Jong, Gay Talese, Wole Soyinka, Jamaica Kincaid, Marlon James, Fran Lebowitz, Vendela Vida, Dave Eggers, Patti Smith, Martin Scorsese, John Banville, Ian Buruma, David Mamet and many others. Among the Italians we remember Paolo Sorrentino, Alessandro Baricco, Jovanotti, Paolo Giordano, Sandro Veronesi, Claudio Magris and Alessandro Piperno.