Reporting Florence

Jamie Mackay is a Florence-based author and journalist who has been writing about Italian politics and current affairs for over a decade for international newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The New Statesman, VICE and Art Review. His book The Invention of Sicily – a cultural history of the island – was released in July 2021 to critical acclaim and was favourably reviewed in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement.  

 

At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic – when editors were overwhelmingly focused on the health emergency - Jamie set up a substack newsletter ‘The Week in Italy’ to continue writing about other, more niche, subjects. Two years on, the publication is still going, and it has established a cult following of readers interested in idiosyncratic stories that often pass under the news radar. 

We’ll be talking with Jamie about the highs and lows of freelancing in Italy, the challenges of communicating across national borders, and his experience covering topics as diverse as organised crime, urban development, the climate emergency and pop culture.

 

Free Entry.  Refreshments by donation.

 

No booking required, just come along and join in!