Extending the international connections and conversations fostered each spring by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the inaugural Zig Zag Festival, billed as “a visual bridge between Italy and the U.S.,” will take place in New York City on June 8–12, across various venues. The five-day series of events on illustration and comics will bring together Italian and American authors, artists, and members of the publishing world for a chance to promote cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration. The festival is curated by Hamelin Associazione Culturale in Bologna and Brooklyn-based author-illustrator and designer Steven Guarnaccia, in collaboration with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair—along with partners including the Society of Illustrators, Rizzoli Bookstore, Salotto – Casa IED, Sullaluna Bookshop & Bistrot, and the School of Visual Arts.
The project was announced at this year’s Bologna Fair during a panel with some of the key participants: Elena Pasoli, director of BCBF; Francesca Rizzi, founder of Sullaluna in Venice and New York City; Livia Senic-Matuglia, manager of Rizzoli Bookstore, which marked its 60th anniversary last year; Emilio Varrà, founder of Hamelin; Arabelle Liepold, executive director of the Society of Illustrators, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year; and author-illustrators Guarnaccia, Cecilia Ruiz, and Felicita Sala. According to Pasoli, the concept emerged from a casual conversation, “as so many things in our sector do,” and it developed through a network of “established connections and friendships. The purpose is not only to connect but to create new opportunities.”
Invoking prominent Italian/American illustrators and designers such as Sergio Ruzzier, Emiliano Ponzi (founder of the Salotto cultural salon in Williamsburg), and Riccardo Vecchio (chair of SVA’s MFA in illustration as visual essay), Guarnaccia quipped, “At a certain point, it was clear that Italians were taking over illustration in New York!” With so many “intersections,” he said a festival of this nature “seemed inevitable,” while acknowledging that “without Elena’s optimism, none of this would’ve happened.” He went on to add that each of the project’s participants “do what they do at the highest level.”
Claudio Pagliara, director of the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, said in a statement, “Zig Zag is not just a thread that, unraveling through the streets and avenues of New York, unites the five locations involved in the initiative. It is also an image of the way ideas move: along paths that are never straight-forward, always open to discussion, exchange, and new synthesis.”
Rizzi, who opened a West Village location of her Venetian bookstore and bistrot with son Fulgi Tonello in September 2024, said of her partnership with the festival, “We’re proud to be part of this project because it matches our goal: to build bridges and create community. We think it’s very political.”
Liepold of SoI agreed, saying, “Nowadays, it’s more important than ever that we build that bridge.”
Beyond the full slate of roundtables and exhibits, the festival will feature a female-driven B2B component organized independently by BCBF, entitled Bridging Markets: Women in Children’s Publishing from Italy and North America. Pasoli told PW, “In conjunction with the Zig Zag Festival, we are bringing eight outstanding Italian publishers to New York and, in collaboration with Debbie Bibo, the American agent based in Milan, we are organizing a full day of speed meetings with a dozen North American publishers. The event will take place on June 9 at the Society of Illustrators.” She noted, “This is the first time we have organized an initiative like this in New York, and we are able to make it happen thanks to the support of the Italian Trade Agency as part of our Bologna Grand Tour program.”
The participating publishers from Italy include Il Castoro & Tunué, Corraini Edizioni, FATATRAC, Minibombo, Orecchio Acerbo Editore, Quinto Quarto Edizioni, Terre di Mezzo Editore, and Topipittori. Representing North America are Archipelago’s Elsewhere Editions, Astra Books for Young Readers, Christy Ottaviano Books (an imprint of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), Chronicle Books, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, Enchanted Lion Books, FSG Books for Young Readers (an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group), Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, Phaidon Kids, Tundra Book Group (Canada), and Union Square Kids.
The festival kicks off on Monday, June 8 at 6 p.m., at the Italian Cultural Institute, with the opening of the exhibition 250 Years of Friendship. A Visual Bridge Between Italy and the U.S.A., in honor of America’s semiquincentennial. Ilaria Tontardini of Hamelin will moderate a discussion, with introductions by Guarnaccia and children’s literature historian Leonard Marcus; a cocktail reception will follow. The closing event takes place at Sullaluna on Friday, June 12 at 6:30 p.m., with a conversation between artists Marianna Coppo and Cecilia Ruiz, moderated by Guarnaccia, titled “Pictures with Wings.”
All events are free and open to the public. For the complete lineup, click here.