Born in Bergamo in 1951, after graduating, Giusi Quarenchi started dealing with cinema, cartoons, comic-strips, advertising and television and wrote many children's and young adults' books. Her debut dates back to 1982 with "Ahi, che male", published by Edizioni EL and illustrated by Federico Maggioni, followed by many more books for all ages. With Giunti Publishers, within the series Under 14, she published Strega come me in 1995, which is today recognized as a modern classic of Italian child literature. She became more famous with Un corpo di donna published by Gaia Junior with Mondadori in 1997 dealing with anorexia, one of the few books on this subject in Italy. But it is with her feuilleton Ragazze per sempre, published in 1999, that Giusi Quarenghi obtained her greatest success amongst her young adults' readership. In 2006 she won the Andersen Prize for best writer.

(photo: © Festivaletteratura)