Porto Cervo celebrates Niccolò Ammaniti and Adriana Cavarero: they are the overall winners, respectively in Fiction and Nonfiction, of the 2026 Costa Smeralda Award.

The two writers were awarded this evening at the Porto Cervo Conference Center during the final ceremony of the event, which also included the International Prize awarded to Spanish writer Javier Cercas, the Mediterranean Culture Prize awarded to Sicilian artist, writer, and poet Emilio Isgrò, and the Special Prize awarded to Admiral Giuseppe Lai.

With "The Guardian," published by Einaudi, Ammaniti beat out competition from Paola Barbato, who competed with "Cuore capovolto" (Neri Pozza), and Dario Ferrari with "L'idiota di famiglia" (Sellerio), while Cavarero with "Il canto delle sirene" (Castelvecchi) bested Edoardo Camurri ("La vita che brucia," Timeo) and Andrea Moro ("Lucrezio and the Blue-Eyed Bat," La Nave di Teseo). The winners take home the small sculpture made by Giuseppe Sanna from basalt, trachyte, granite, marble, and limestone.

The winners of the seventh edition of the literary prize, promoted by the Costa Smeralda Consortium and sponsored by Smeralda Holding, with the patronage of the Municipality of Arzachena, gathered in Porto Cervo for the awards ceremony, assigned by the jury led by Stefano Salis, the prize's artistic director.

The ceremony was hosted by journalist Roberta Floris. Mario Ferraro, vice president of the Costa Smeralda Consortium, who emphasized the importance of culture and the space the Costa Smeralda reserves for it season after season, was also present. Consortium president Renzo Persico and Arzachena mayor Roberto Ragnedda also attended.