Lawrence Festival: in Mandas it's time to take stock. The presentation of the Lawrence Prize for journalism to Pietro Senaldi marked the end of the sixteenth edition of the “DH Lawrence Travel Literature Festival”, organized by the Municipality of Mandas to promote books considered a fundamental tool and vehicle for telling the world, places and cultures. Caterina Cosseddu instead received the Special Lawrence 2024 Prize , established in the last edition of the event when it was awarded to the young writer Matteo Porru. «We are satisfied with the success of an event that for several years has proposed important cultural meetings and moments of reflection capable of involving so many people in our center», says Mayor Umberto Oppus , who is already thinking about the next edition of the Festival: «The goal is to continue to enrich our cultural offering in memory of Lawrence».
A crescendo of cultural events and evenings that saw the rooms of the former Convent of San Francesco always at maximum capacity for the various book presentations (“Thundimentas” by Francesco Pintore, “La Sardegna nell'anima” by Tore Quartu, “Quattro mori a cinque cerchi. I Sardi alle Olimpiadi dal 1908 al 2024” by Marcello Atzeni), the inauguration of the Militaria exhibition, meetings with students (the archaeology lesson by Paolo Montalbano was particularly appreciated), the presentation of the Mandarese of the year 2024 awards to the expert knife makers Michele Raccis, Mario Mulliri, Giorgio Mulliri, Stefano Pili and Alessandro Pili, tastings of local products and the various celebratory events in honor of Gigi Riva on the occasion of the champion's 80th birthday.
The aim of the Travel Literature Festival is to raise regional and national public awareness of the theme of travel as a possible meeting of cultures and, above all, of the journey on the historic train where, in 1921, the English writer traveled with his wife Frieda. «The Lawrence Festival – Oppus underlines – is an event of great cultural impact capable of enriching the tourist offer of Mandas and the territory, generating positive effects on the economy of the territories crossed by the railway».
