Becoming a Novelist in Post-Brexit Britain

Hybrid, online and in person

IAS Common Ground
G11, ground floor, South Wing
UCL, Gower Street, London
WC1E6BT
United Kingdom

https://ucl.zoom.us/j/92143132788
Meeting ID: 921 4313 2788

In this seminar, four Italian women, who migrated to the UK and became novelists, will discuss how their first books came into being in London. Cecilia Ghidotti’s Il pieno di felicità (2019), Olga Campofreda’s Ragazze perbene (2023), Carolina Bandinelli’s La più brava (2024), and Giorgia Tolfo’s Wild swimming (2025) all portray female and queer characters navigating migration, work, relationships, and the formation of new transnational selves. Together, these novels offer a compelling insight into recent Italian migration to the UK and the experience of being an Italian abroad today. They prompt reflections on language, desire, gender, identity, memory, social and cultural privilege, and on how the notion of “home” can be reimagined in contemporary Britain.

Associate Professor of Media and Creative Industries at University of Warwick

Carolina Bandinelli co-directs the Centre for Digital Inquiry at Warwick. She earned her PhD in Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College. She is the author of several articles and books, as well as a podcast series, exploring her research interests, which include digital culture of love, digital societies and technologies, and labour in the creative industries. Her first novel, La più brava, was published in 2024.

Former Visiting Research Fellow at Institute of Advanced Studies

She gained a PhD in Italian Studies at University College London. As a researcher, she works on contemporary Italian literature with a special focus on youth and the coming-of-age novel (Bildungsroman). She has collaborated with a range of cultural institutes and festivals, including Italian Cultural Institute of London and Festival of Italian Literature in London. She is a curator of literary events, including the Miu Miu Literary Club by Miuccia Prada. Her first novel, Ragazze perbene, was published in 2023.

Teaching Fellow at Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at the University of Warwick

She holds an MA in Creative Writing in Italian from the Holden School, a PhD in Italian Studies from the University of Bologna, and a second PhD from Loughborough University London. Her core research interest is cultural labour, particularly the phenomenon of quitting cultural work. She published her first novel, Il pieno di felicità, in 2019.

Collections Researcher at National Archives (UK)

She has a PhD in Comparative and Postcolonial Literature from the University of Bologna and a postgraduate diploma in Digital Humanities (UCL). She co-founded and co-directed FILL – Festival of Italian Literature in London. Her work moves between archival research and creative writing, with a focus on identity, place, and memory. She has published widely in Italian literary magazines and translated works by Chantal Akerman, Sophie Divry and Fatima Daas. Wild Swimming (Bompiani, 2025) is her first novel.

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