Cautano in Poetry

A poetry festival in the heart of the Sannio region

Every summer, Cautano in Poetry brings contemporary poetic expression to a village of just over two thousand inhabitants, nestled at the foot of the Taburno Camposauro massif in the province of Benevento. The festival was founded in 2021 by poet and cultural organizer Michele Piramide in collaboration with the Casa Naima Association and the Municipality of Cautano. In just a few years, it has become a key reference point in Campania for promoting contemporary poetry and fostering dialogue between different artistic languages. It is not a big-city event; rather, it is a village festival that has chosen the quality of its literary offerings as its hallmark, bringing authors, critics, editors, and visual artists from all over Italy to the Sannio region.

Piazza Simonetta Lamberti, the home of the festival

Since 2025, the event has been held in the evocative Piazza Simonetta Lamberti, a public space named after the young girl killed over forty years ago in a mafia-related attack, who has since become a symbol of civic conscience for the community. The square, set up as an open-air venue with a bookstore featuring guest authors' works, seating for the public, and artist installations, has become the natural home for the festival and the Prize that bears her name. Here, memory is not a static commemoration; it is a living force, expressed through verses, readings, and the voices of all who participate.

The Simonetta Lamberti National Prize

The heart of the event is the Simonetta Lamberti National Prize, a poetry competition open to authors from all over Italy. As the organizers emphasize, it was created to preserve and renew, through the power of the poetic word, the memory of Simonetta Lamberti and the value of culture as a tool for civic growth. The Prize has a well-established structure:

• a national call for entries with a summer deadline, followed by the selection of finalists and the announcement of the winner during the festival;
• a jury committee composed of poets, writers, critics, and teachers, chaired by Angela Procaccini;
• a «Antonia Rapuano» Young Poet section reserved for younger writers, which has given a voice to new emerging authors over the years;
• the publication of selected poems in an anthology, providing editorial continuity to the competition's work;
• the support of the Pol.i.s. Foundation of the Campania Region, which works on issues related to the memory of innocent victims and legality.

More than just verse: visual arts and music

Cautano in Poetry is not just a simple reading. Each edition weaves poetry together with visual arts—installations, painting, and sculpture entrusted to local Sannio artists—and live music, often with jazz and blues influences, which accompanies the evening readings. Alongside meetings with authors, there are «salons» for critical discussion with journalists and cultural operators, book presentations, and moments of engagement with the audience. The result is a multidisciplinary formula that works perfectly on August evenings: you come for a name, you stay for the atmosphere of the square.

Discovering Cautano, the Taburno, and the Sannio

The festival is also an opportunity to discover a part of Campania rarely visited by mass tourism. Cautano is located in the Vitulanese Valley, within the Taburno Camposauro Regional Park, about twenty kilometers from Benevento: a land of trails, chestnut groves, olive groves, and vineyards where the oil of the Telesina Valley and the wines of the Sannio—from Aglianico to Falanghina—are produced. Those attending the poetry evenings can easily combine their visit with hikes on the Taburno, a tour of the historic center of Benevento with the Arch of Trajan and the Roman Theater, and a stop at local wineries.

A free-access event

As in previous editions promoted by the Municipality of Cautano, the meetings are held in the square with free admission, starting in the early evening when the summer heat subsides. It is a festival that can be enjoyed as a family, without reservations, and for as long as you wish: the simplest and most effective formula for introducing a wide audience to contemporary poetry.