Staffette – Independent Book Traveling Festival (Rome stop)

A traveling festival for independent publishing in Rome

Staffette – Independent Book Traveling Festival is an event born from the desire of several independent publishers to envision a sustainable, human-centered, artisanal, and locally-rooted publishing industry. For its Rome stop, the festival finds its home at the Casa delle donne Lucha y Siesta, located at Via Lucio Sestio 10, in the Tuscolano district of Rome, in the heart of the Lazio region. Two days where the written word becomes a tool for meeting, discussion, and transformation, open to readers, the curious, families, and cultural professionals.

Who promotes Staffette

The festival is promoted by four Italian independent publishing houses — Armillaria, Capovolte, Edicola edizioni, and effequ — and brings together a wide range of publishers and cultural projects at each edition. The Rome stop features, among others, imprints such as Astarte, Cliquot, Cronache Ribelli, D Editore, Exòrma, Le Plurali, Maschietto, Moscabianca, Radici, Red Star Press, Rina, and Wojtek, alongside projects like Pausania Studio, Malinconia Fumogeno, and Radio Quar. It stems from the awareness that the contemporary publishing system, marked by overproduction and market logic, risks suffocating independent publishing: Staffette aims to showcase an alternative path built on cooperation and care.

The venue: Casa delle donne Lucha y Siesta

The choice of venue is no coincidence. Lucha y Siesta is a feminist and transfeminist space that also operates an anti-violence service in Rome: hosting the festival here means intertwining independent publishing with themes of self-determination, bodies, identities, and community. Admission is free, with voluntary donations to support the activities of the women's center.

What to expect

• Stalls from independent publishers with catalogs rarely found in bookstores
• Presentations, debates, and talks on publishing, cultural resistance, reading, and inequality
• Readings aloud and editorial workshops designed for children
• Social moments, shared dinners, and the much-anticipated Staffesta, the collective karaoke
• An accessible space, designed for inclusion, including for people with disabilities

More than just a book fair, Staffette presents itself as a cultural laboratory: a weekend where independent publishing in Rome becomes a community, with the Province of Rome and the entire Lazio region as the backdrop for a project that travels from city to city.