Festival of Migrant Literatures

A festival in the heart of the Mediterranean

The Festival of Migrant Literatures (FLM) is one of the most recognizable cultural events in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. Founded in 2015, it acknowledges the city's central role in Mediterranean migration flows and addresses the theme of migration not as an exceptional phenomenon, but as a structural and constitutive dynamic of human history. Here, literature becomes a tool for transmitting memory and understanding the contemporary world.

The Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa

The heart of the event is the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa, a former industrial complex converted into a creative hub in the Zisa district. Within the spaces of the Cantieri and at numerous venues across the city—from the Institut Français and the Istituto Gramsci to bookstores, theaters, and cultural centers—the festival hosts author meetings, readings, performances, exhibitions, and workshops in a continuous dialogue between disciplines and generations.

A multidisciplinary program

The FLM is more than just a literary festival: alongside meetings with writers and journalists, the program includes theater, music, contemporary art, and film screenings. The literary program is directed by journalist and writer Davide Camarrone, supported by a steering committee that oversees the theater, music, and art sections. The festival is chaired by Dario Oliveri and supported by a dedicated scientific committee.

Themes of recent years

Each edition revolves around a keyword that guides the program:

• 2025 — "Annexations"
• 2024 — "Generations"
• 2023 — "Against/Towards"
• 2022 — "The Future City"
• 2021 — "Shared Body"

Through these themes, the festival reflects on identity, conflict, individual freedom, and rights, giving voice to a plurality of perspectives that cross languages and borders.

An event of peace and dialogue

Promoted with the support of the Municipality of Palermo and numerous public and private institutions, the FLM serves as an opportunity for encounter and debate in a city that has historically been a crossroads of Mediterranean cultures. Its vocation is to make the word, both written and spoken, a space for hospitality, resistance, and mutual understanding, where the plurality of voices becomes an antidote to disinformation and cultural erasure.