Carmen Pellegrino lives in Naples. She has investigated some key issues of contemporaneity, from collective movements (as in ’68 napoletano. Lotte studentesche e conflitti sociali tra conservatorismo e utopie, 2008, in collaboration with the historian Giovanni De Luna) to the more recent recovery of the historical lived experience of abandoned places (source: Treccani.it).

She is the co-author of several works (including Qui si chiama fatica, 2010; Non è un paese per donne, 2011; Novantadue, 2012). With her first novel, Cade la terra (2015), she won the Rapallo Carige Award for Best First Novel and the Campiello Selection Award. With the novel Se mi tornassi questa sera accanto (2017), she won the Dessì Award.

With La nave di Teseo, she published La felicità degli altri in 2021, which received the Campiello Selection Award and the Latisana International Literary Prize. In 2023, she was awarded the English PEN Translates Award. Her 2024 novel is Dove la luce, with which she won the Porta d’Oriente Award and the Italian-American The Bridge Award.

For the Feltrinelli Foundation, she has curated several publications and written and hosted the Non solo storia podcasts. She collaborates with La Lettura of Corriere della Sera.