Nelida Milani (bornPula, 1939), who also publishes under the nameNelida Milani Kruljac, is anIstrian Italian writer and professor oflinguistics andsemantics fromCroatia. Milani was awarded thePremio Mondello in 1992 forUna valigia di cartone. Jointly withAnna Maria Mori, she was the recipient of theRapallo Carige Prize forBora in 1999. In 2022 she was awarded the Pula City Citizens Award.
Milani was born and lives in Pola.[1] Pola was part ofYugoslavia but after the fall ofTito, it is now part of Croatia. Milani was a professor of linguistics and semantics and head of the Department of Italian at the Faculty of Humanities at theJuraj Dobila University of Pula.[2] She was the editor-in-chief of the magazineLa Battana.[3] She has written a number of books and collections of short stories. Her works includeInsonnia (1987),La partita (1988),Impercettibili passaggi (1989),Una valigia di cartone (1990),Tempo di primavera (1991), andBora (1998).[1] Themes in Milani's work include bilingualism, marginalisation, trauma and particularly theIstrian-Dalmatian exodus.[2] The 1999 bookBora was jointly written with Anna Maria Mori, and is semi-autobiographical. It compares the stories of the two writers, who were both born in Pola. After the exodus, Milani stayed but Mori left, and the book charts their different experiences of adapting to new circumstances.[2]
Milani is one of five women writers whose life stories are featured in the bookTorn Identities:Life Stories at the Border of Italian Literature, by Gregoria Manzin, published by Troubadour Publishing in 2013. The other writers are Kenka Lekovich, Marisa Madieri, Anna Maria Mori and Giuliana Zelco.[4]
Milani was awarded thePremio Mondello in 1992 forUna valigia di cartone ('A cardboard suitcase').[3] Jointly withAnna Maria Mori, Milani was the recipient of theRapallo Carige Prize forBora in 1999.[5] In 2022 Milani was nominated unanimously by the Assembly of the Italian Community of Pula for the 2022 Pula City Citizens Award.[2]
