The event that awards young emerging writing talent and illustrators' creativity is getting underway at the Tratto cover pages contest.

Subway-Literature, the eighth edition of the literary scene cult event, will publish and freely distribute the 13 booklets by the winning authors and illustrators o the Tratto cover pages contest, co-promoted by Tratto PEN, throughout Italy (specifically Milan, Rome, Naples, Venice, Palermo and Mantua). The number of copies has grown to 4,250,000.

Starting this year, cities in the Emilia Romagna region like Bologna, Modena, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, Lido di Ravenna, Rimini and Riccione will also be involved. Milan, December 16, 2008 - Subway-Literature returns, the literary event conceived and organised by Davide Franzini and Oliviero Ponte di Pino, which will award the talent and poetic creativity of the young debuting writers and poets, under the age of 35, for the eighth year in a row. The award consists in the publication and free distribution of their works, printed in 4,250,000 copies, mainly in the cities of Milan, Rome, Naples, Venice, Palermo and Mantua.

The second edition of the "Tratto cover pages" contest also returns, co-promoted in partnership with Tratto Pen, legendary event sponsor and pen-marker that has "guided" the hands of many talents for more than thirty years. Chaired by Alfredo Chiappori, the contest is dedicated to young illustrators under 35 who will create the cover pages of the 13 winning booklets.

The booklets will be freely distributed between May and November 2009 in the Literary Jukeboxes, the famous containers installed at the subway stops in Milan, Rome, Naples and at the Venice ferry docks, at the train stations in Palermo and in public sites in the city of Mantua. For this edition, the 13th booklet will also be signed by the local writers and dedicated to the local social-cultural context in each "Subway circuit" city.

The Tratto cover pages contest

Thanks to Tratto Pen's support, the legendary F.I.L.A. brand and daily writing and creative expression tool for over thirty years, Subway-Literature has enthusiastically renewed its search of world publishing illustration talents, launching the second edition of the Tratto cover pages contest. Once again, "UP the subversive", the famous character created by Alfredo Chiappori, Jury chairman, is the start of the comic strip inserted in the new contest.

To become one of the winners who will create the cover pages of the Subway-Literature 2009 booklets, contestants, under age 35, must create two illustrations, inspired by one of the stories published in previous editions which can be downloaded at www.subway-letteratura.org under the Literary Jukebox section (thus not the stories published online in the forum). In a second phase, the selected authors will each sign the illustrations that will be published on the 2009 booklet cover pages, promoting their creativity through the vast distribution of the Subway-Literature publications.