The Women's Fiction Festival has established a literary prize, 'La Baccante'. Each year, Harlequin Mondadori, the Festival's main sponsor, awards the 'La Baccante' literary prize to an internationally renowned author of women's fiction in Italy and throughout the world.
The 'La Baccante' prize is itself a work of art by a rising local artist, Lela Campitelli.

The winner of the 2004 'Baccante' prize

The first winner of the ' Baccante' prize for best women's fiction was Maria Venturi, an Italian author known for her deeply emotional and original stories which add lustre to women's fiction in Italy. Maria Venturi is a writer, a journalist, op-ed journalis, All her books have been published by Rizzoli and BUR and are written - proudly - in a very accessible style. Her fifteen books fly off the shelves, have all been bestsellers and have been translated into Bulgarian, Rumanian and Polish. Her latest book, published by Rizzoli, is Butta la luna. Many of her books have been turned into blockbuster made-for-TV films and mini-series. The most recent is Incantesimo, now in its seventh year on the RAI channel.
These are just some of her books which have been filmed:
"Butta la luna", "L'amante è finita", "Chi perdona ha vinto", "Da quando mi lasciasti", "In punta di cuore", "Addio e ritorno", "La donna per legare il sole".

Maria Venturi maps out human emotions on both a grand and intimate scale, in her unique and unmistakeable literary voice, very down-to-earth yet never condescending or repetitive. Both Oreste del Buono and Italo Calvino appreciated her genuine literary talent.
Maria Venturi's fiction is in line with the best of English-language women's fiction, with a thoroughly Italian twist.