The literary magazine Nuovi Argomenti, founded in 1953 by Alberto Moravia and Alberto Carocci, celebrates 60 years of publication with two new features: firstly, the site www.nuoviargomenti.net (online from 12 March), which will host new contributions, highlights from the archive of the magazine, new and regular columns and a section dedicated to poetry and a space for unpublished talents who wish to submit their work, in verse or prose, to the editorial board of Nuovi Argomenti.

The second new feature is the “One year one artist” project. Starting from issue 61 (out on 12 March and on sale at the special price of €10) it has been decided to commission an artist of importance to oversee the covers of the magazine for an entire year. Julian Opie will open the series with a project entitled “People walking”. His human figures in motion, following on from one cover to the next and on both sides of a single cover, perfectly expresses a community that meets and evolves, precisely the type of community that gives life to a literary magazine.

Finally, since February 2013, the digitization of the fifth series of Nuovi Argomenti has been underway, a process that began in 1998 and still in progress. Each month, the four issues that make up a year of the magazine, will be made available in e-book, starting with 2012 and 2011, which are already available.

From 1953 to the present the pages of Nuovi Argomenti have featured works by all the major Italian authors and many important foreign writers. Over the years the editors of the magazine have included Pier Paolo Pasolini, Leonardo Sciascia, Attilio Bertolucci, Enzo Siciliano, Raffaele La Capria. Currently, Dacia Maraini, as editor-in-chief, heads up a panel of editors made up by Raffaele La Capria, Furio Colombo, Arnaldo Colasanti, Raffaele Manica and Giorgio van Straten. There have also been numerous writers who have carried out the role of editorial coordination, including Sandro Veronesi, Edoardo Albinati, Emanuele Trevi, Lorenzo Pavolini and Mario Desiati. Currently, this role is played by Carlo Carabba. For the editorial coordination of the site Carlo Carabba will be supported by Federica Manzon, Chiara Valerio, Giancarlo Liviano D’Arcangelo and Francesco Pacifico.

A constant characteristic in the history of the magazine has been the special attention to the first steps of new literary talent: in addition to the names already mentioned (many of whom have taken their first steps in the pages of Nuovi Argomenti) are those of Alessandro Piperno, Roberto Saviano, Paolo Giordano, Federica Manzon, Chiara Valerio, Francesco Pacifico and Silvia Avallone.

The new issue of the magazine continues the tradition and is dedicated to the best authors of a new generation, with an anthology, “Supernova”, edited by Chiara Valerio and Carlo Carabba, and showcasing storytellers born in the second half of the 80s, obviously able to create a new synthesis of traditional cultural references and those of more recent years. In their work we jump seamlessly from Kafka to the Simpsons, from Lost to Nabokov.

To present these new features and reflect on the role and relevance today of a magazine dedicated to “culture and society”, on Tuesday 12 March, at 6pm, an event was organised at the Casa delle Letterature in Rome. Also for the occasion a complete collection of Nuovi Argomenti, from 1953 to the present, will be on display. The collection is mostly from the private collection of Enzo Siciliano and, at his death, was donated to the library of the Casa delle Letterature. The speakers included Dacia Maraini and many of the historic editors and contributors of Nuovi Argomenti.