Established by the LericiPea Association in 2007 in collaboration with the City of Lerici, the Lerici Pea “Paolo Bertolani” Prize dedicated to Dialectal Poetry is yearly given to a poet whose work has enhanced specific linguistic peculiarities and has promoted local culture and identity. The well-known dialectal poet Paolo Bertolani – hence the name of the Prize – has always been deeply rooted in such a culture and in his poetic work he, in fact, mainly used the dialect of La Serra, a small village in the hills of Lerici.
The spirit of the “Paolo Bertolani” Prize is fully reflected in the positions expressed by the UNESCO, the European Union and the Italian Pen Club, which include, among inalienable human rights, the freedom to use one’s “mother tongue” and acknowledge that the over 300 ancestral languages and dialects have equal cultural and literary dignity on the Italian territory, so they have to be protected and made known through national and regional initiatives.
2019 – Biagio Guerrera
2020 – Giuseppe Rinaldi, in arte Kaballà – Singer-songwriter Section