Message from Maria Donata, benefactress and initiator of the ‘Travel Reflections’ Competition:

Dear Friends of Expatclic,

Let me start by thanking the Expatclic team members, who believed with me in this amazing adventure and carried it out with incredible devotion and perseverance. I would not have been able to put in practice the idea of the competition without them. The success of the competition and the engagement all parties showed fill me with joy, pride and satisfaction.
I had no precise expectations about the quality and number of entries we would receive. The result has definitely been encouraging, especially in the short story/article category.
We witnessed a passionate desire to relate amazing experiences that deserve much more than a prize: sharing them in the memory of Maria Pia has a very special meaning.
I wish to thank all the participants who contributed to make this competition a wonderful journey of discovery, exchange and enrichment, creating a mosaic of situations that combine to give a warm and positive vision of travels and lives abroad.

I wish you all continued success in your expat ventures.

Maria Donata
, October 2013

The Maria Pia Forte Prize was an ambitious venture: a literary/photographic competition encompassing no fewer than four language groups: Italian, French, Spanish and English is no mean feat to organise!

In all, we received 106 stories, 39 poems and 119 photographs from 57 countries, the top five contributors being Spain, France, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and the USA.

There was a huge range of interpretations on the given themes of life as an expatriate woman, travel, cross-cultural encounters, and the value of writing.

The stories, poems and photos took us from small towns in Sardinia to vast deltas in Botswana, and from mega cities in India to villages in Central Africa and beyond.

And on these journeys, we shared with the writers and photographers first-hand emotions of nostalgia, loss, hope, regret, resilience, enrichment from the expat experience, and above all, a deep love for people and places.

In the Short Story/Article and Poetry categories, an initial ‘reading round’ whittled the numbers down to 40 stories and 10 poems, eliminating pieces we felt were only tenuously linked to the themes, or which were structurally or stylistically confusing.

The judges noted with interest that the Italian entries were more introspective and focused on personal feelings, whereas the English ones were more outward-looking and descriptive of foreign cultures and people. The French entries seemed to be a combination of the two.

At this point, a team of five trilingual judges took over (none of the very few Spanish entries made it through to the final round). What we were looking for were stories and poems that closely adhered to the themes, and were well-written, original, and moving. Several complied with these criteria, but our mandate was to select only one in each category.

Winner in the Short Story/Article Category

The one short story that stood out above the rest and came out a clear winner, was written in English: Address Unknown, by Lisa Clark.

Without resorting to sentimentality, in a fluent, well-paced, economic style, and using arresting images, Lisa tackles the themes of the competition and introduces us to the world of the Roma in Bulgaria. The dialogue in the piece brings it alive, and with light brush strokes the author paints the depth of the relationship between the main character, Rumi, and the narrator, while at the same time subtly bringing the reader’s awareness to the plight of all the Roma people, without resorting to ‘information dump’. And the story ends on a positive note: ‘I’ve always admired those gritty little weeds which so tenaciously cling to life that they’re able to punch through a slab of cement and survive. I see Rumi straining to survive in a similar way. I hope she succeeds.’

About the Writer
Lisa Clark is a freelance author who has lived with her husband in Bulgaria for many years. Her stories have appeared in a variety of print magazines, e-zines, and anthologies, including Best Modern Voices, Volume 2. She enjoys giving a face to both current events and historical periods through her characters. Currently, she’s working on Whispers over Time: A Novel in Stories, which focuses on the way genetic and epigenetic traits are passed from one generation to the next.

Winner in the Poetry Category

The winner in this category was a French poem, Tu peux… by Marie Arlandis.
Many of the poems focused on themes of nostalgia and the difficulty to adapt to another culture. “Tu Peux…” stood out from the other excellent entries, many of which used free verse, for its simplicity and universal message to ‘the travelling woman’.
“Tu peux…” has a classic rhyming structure, and a steady rhythm that echoes both the passage of time and the emotional ups and downs of being an expat. Marie takes us through the difficulties of a peripatetic life— ‘Tu appelleras les tiens dans les temps de chagrin’ but also shares the joys—‘Tu créearas une famille ou toute une autre vie’. The repetition of ‘Tu peux…’ at the start of several lines gives the poem an upbeat, optimistic feel. It is a fresh, youthful piece, filled with hope, and ending with a positive message—‘Raconte bien ton histoire, c’est celle de toute une vie.’

About the poet
Marie Arlandis is a 22-year-old French woman, living in Montreal, Canada. Previously, she lived in various French cities, and in Madrid for three years. She has also been an exchange student in Barcelona. She dreams of exploring Asia. This poem comprises the voices of members of her large family of nomadic women.

Winner in the Photography Category

Sonia Marzullo with Parigi

It was not easy to choose a winner among the 119 stunning images that flowed in from around the globe, and which covered a vast range or subjects and situations.

We particularly liked Sonia Marzullo’s ‘Parigi’, because it is technically of a high quality, and expresses the themes of the competition. The subject is a woman captured in a context outside her own. She is taking part in a demonstration against forced expulsions, but the atmosphere is happy and festive. In this photo we witness an encounter between different cultural situations which are not necessarily easy, but that spark a moment of joy, which is shared with the same emotion by those surrounding the subject.

The photographer was able to identify and transmit an optimistic and positive message about cross-cultural encounters. The different elements which make up the composition of the photo are harmoniously distributed and well-balanced. The predominance of black is artistically cut by the woman’s scarf and the band worn on her arm. The Parisian buildings in the background give a sense of openness and fresh air.

About the Photographer
Sonia was born in Italy to a family who taught her to love travelling and intercultural encounters. She studied in Siena, then got a diploma in Cultural Anthropology in Bologna, and moved to Paris, where she is currently living. Photography is her passion. When she received the news of the prize, she was honored to have won with a photo illustrating her greatest passions: traveling, cultural encounters, creative exchanges: a tribute to the memory of Maria Pia Forte and to all strong, brave and enriching expat women.

Members of the Judging Panel for the Poetry and Short story/Article sections

• Maria Donata Rinaldi, niece of Maria Pia Forte and promoter of the competition
• Claudia Landini, founder and coordinator of Expatclic
• From the Expatclic team: Silvia Delogu, Anna Cereti, Erika Raimondi, Giulietta Cerruti Sacconey, Rosanna Valle
• Alessandra Canova has a vast experience of expat life in African countries. Her two children were born in Côte d’Ivoire. She is a humanitarian aid worker, and has been writing stories since she can remember. She is working on her first book, and lives in Geneva.
• Alessandra Galetta ia an Italian writer who has lived for a long time in the Netherlands. She has published three novels, Vedrai vedrai (ed. Untitled), Tre in una stanza and Prima che la storia finisca (ed. Eumeswil).
• Gabriella Carugno lived for many years in various African countries. She has been contributing articles to Expatclic for some time. At present she’s living between Malta and Milan.
• Susanna Fioretti has a vast experience of life and work in Africa and Asia. She has written for cinema and TV, and has published articles and three books: Frammenti di una storia Romana, La tela di Penelope, printed by a women’s association in Kabul, and Involontaria, published by Einaudi. At present she is living in Rome, where she has founded and runs nine non-profit organisations https://www.noveonlus.org/
• Paola Fornari is Italian. She was born on island on Lake Victoria, and brought up in Tanzania. She has lived in a dozen countries over four continents, speaks five languages and dabbles in several others, and describes herself as an expatriate sine patria. Apart from being a language trainer and IELTS examiner, she has had articles and stories published in four continents and online. She is an active member of the online writing group Writers Abroad, and helps out at Expatclic in various ways.
• John McAndrew is an English poet, with a long experience of expat life in Australia, Palestine and Italy. He has worked in academic circles for many years.
• Jo Roscoe is an ex-civil servant, ex-teacher, and ex-therapist. He loves reading, current affairs, and people-watching.
• Kay Munayer is English, and has lived more than half her life in Jerusalem, where she is an active member of the local book club and actively supports social projects.
• Gunilla Fargusson is Swedish, and has worked in various parts of Africa, Asia and Georgia. She is an avid reader. At the moment she’s living in England, where she’s an active member of her local book club.
• Anne Zarella is Expatclic’s English-French translator. She has lived in many African countries and is living at present in Jerusalem.
• Jean Clauzet is French, and has a vast experience of expat life, having lived in Spain, Honduras, Ethiopia, Chile and the Philippines. He regularly writes articles for Spanish magazines, and translates and proofreads for Expatclic.

Members of the Judging Panel for the Photography Section

• Marco Delogu is an Italian photographer, https://www.marcodelogu.com/
• Loredana Mantello is is an Italian photographer living in Bahrain, https://www.loredanamantello.com/
• Ellen Murray, a photographer from the U.S., lives between the U.S. and Germany, https://ellenmurrayphotography.blogspot.co.il/
• Andrea & Magda are a French-Italian couple who have been living in the West Bank since 2009, https://www.andrea-magda.com

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