Elisa Barbaro
Her name was Aprile
Awarded at Casa Sanremo Writers 2015
Awarded at International Navarro Prize 2021
Premio Presidenza, Concorso internazionale di poesia e narrativa città di Cefalù 2022
Special Mention at International Prize Salvatore Quasimodo 2022
Premio di Merito at International Switzerland Literary Prize 2022
​
“Anyone who lives by the sea has a drop of salt water in his blood”, my grandmother used to say.
As the sea breathes, we breathe too.
​
Tommaso is searching for the woman of his life. You will be drawn into a lush Sicily. An original fresco of Sicilians painted with their strengths and weaknesses, told with light humor.
THE SHORT STORIES
The Day I Died
Second classified at Premio Themis 2019.
""What will Raffaele do when he finds my lifeless body on the bathroom floor? At first he’ll think I passed out, he’ll say my name. He’ll take me by the shoulders and shake me, ever harder, he’ll call my name. Turn me over onto my back and slap me to wake me up, he’ll yell my name. Tears will start to blur his vision, his breathing will become laboured, then he’ll give in to the evidence and gently whisper my name."
​
The first-person story of a woman who dies and in one last breath summarizes her weaknesses, common to all humanity.
Not even the Time for a Kiss
ONLY FOR ADULT
3rd Prize at "Premio Bukowski" 2016
"He sat me down on the same chair, in the same room, of the same hotel where we usually meet. I'm beginning to hate this squalid place: an uncomfortable bed with grey sheets that have absorbed the bodily fluids left by eternal lovers and heard the promises of strangers who swore their true love, knowing it was a lie."
​
Prize Motivation - Prize Motivation: Brave and raw narrative of a sexual addiction, told with style and language appropriate to the bleak situation faced by the protagonist. The masterly narrative condenses over a clandestine meeting all the history that is told.
Bread with the scent of the sea
Winner at "L'Irlanda nel cuore" Writing Competition 2010
"To the west of the Emerald Isle, a little village called Kinvara overlooks the blue Atlantic Ocean. There are only a few, friendly, smiling inhabitants in this quaint fishing village..."
​
This tale born during Elisa Barbaro’s ESOL Examination. One of the test was to write was to write a short story. She achieved an excellent score and later she entered that story into a literary competition called “L’Irlanda nel cuore”. The tale won the first prize in the 2010 edition.
A romantic story of an Italian girl who decided to prolong her vacation in an Irish village. She will meet friends and fall in love.
Weekend escape
“Wake up, wake up. Get ready to escape!” Tam Lin yelled, running around, knocking on every door.
“Oh, no, it's already Sunday”, little Guleesh ...
Elisa Barbaro told a tale about an Irish legend and a magical garden to her nieces. Later she wrote a fairy settled into an enchanted world of gnomes, elfs and brownies.
The quiet life of a group of brownies changed when a man bought the house and the garden where they live.
Ballagh
Winner at "L'Irlanda nel cuore" Writing Competition 2012
"My name is Bairbre. It means “foreigner”. That's the way I always felt, living in my village. I am the third of seven children, born and bred in Ballagh, a village in the middle of nowhere ..."
Elisa Barbaro donated this short tale to a friend to partecipate to the Literary Competition "L'Irlanda nel cuore". The story won the first prize in 2012 edition.
Bairbre is an Irish girl who lived with her family in the village of Ballagh. She was very unhappy, so decided to work abroad. Her experiences around the world will teach her an important lesson.