The Board of Directors and Advisory Board draw on a distinguished network of writers, artists and intellectuals who will be contributing to the project with expertise and experience.

Board of Directors

Baronessa Beatrice Monti della Corte Rezzori, President

Alessandro d'Ansembourg
Stephen Graham
Marilyn Perry, President Emerita, Kress Foundation
Zadie Smith, Writer

Selection Committee


Luigi Brioschi, President, Ugo Guanda Editore
Olivier Cohen, Publisher, Editions de l’Olivier
Wade Davis, Writer, Botanist, Anthropologist
Anita Desai, Writer
Michael Krüger, Publisher, Hanser Verlag
Michael Ondaatje, Novelist, Poet
Gary Shteyngart, Writer
Robert Silvers, Editor, The New York Review of Books
Bill Swainson, Editor, Bloomsbury
Colm Tóibín, Writer
Drenka Willen, Senior Editor, Harcourt Brace


Board of Advisors

Pedro Almadòvar, Film Director, Screenwriter
John Banville, Novelist
Bernardo Bertolucci, Film Director
Giovanna Calvino
Graydon Carter, Editor, Vanity Fair
Pietro Cicognani, Architect
Francesco Clemente, Artist
Michael Cunningham, Writer
Louise Dennys, Vice President, Random House, Canada
Deborah Eisenberg, Writer
Ralph Fiennes, Actor
Marchesa Bona Frescobaldi
David Hockney, Artist
Claudio Magris, Writer, Essayist
Livia Manera Sambuy , Literary Critic
Sonny Mehta, Publisher, Alfred A. Knopf
Nancy Novogrod, Editorial Director American Express P.C.
Countess Giuppi Pietromarchi, Botanist
Isabella Rossellini, Actress
Volker Schlöndorff, Film Director and Producer
Shelley Wanger, Pantheon Books
Bruce Weber, Photographer
David Westin, President, ABC News
Andrew Wylie, Literary Agent
Robert Wilson, Playwright, Director, Artist
David Young, Playwright