The emergency caused by the global Corona Virus pandemic has inevitably provoked changes to the last V edition 2019 of The Bridge Book Award and has made the suspension of the VI edition 2020 inevitable, which has been postponed to 2021.

The changes of the fifth edition consist in a forward shift of the New York award ceremony for the two Italian winners, Romana Petri for Fiction and Massimo Castoldi for Non Fiction. The ceremony was expected to take place in early 2020 at the Center For Fiction in New York, not far from the one held last December in Rome at the American Academy for the American winners, Maaza Menghiste for Fiction and Pamela O. Long for Non Fiction. In agreement with all members of the Award Steering Committee, the ceremony will be postponed to the beginning of 2021. The ceremony in New York will also be an opportunity to present the new American and Italian candidates of the VI edition 2021 of the Prize.

The translation work of the four winning books of the 2019 edition, however, is continuing and it will be hopefully completed by the end of 2020. At the same time we will try to find an editorial location for all four winning books.

The Steering Committee of The Bridge Award