Matilde Serao

Born in Patras, Greece, to an Italian father and Greek mother, Matilde Serao returned to Italy with her family in 1860 and grew up in Naples. She trained as a teacher and worked for the state telegraph service before beginning her career as a journalist and writer.

Serao became one of the best-known women writers of her era. Her novels and short stories, including Fantasia, Il ventre di Napoli, and Il paese di cuccagna, often explore poverty, work, gender, and everyday life in Naples with close attention to detail and feeling.

Journalism remained central to her life. With Edoardo Scarfoglio, she helped establish Il Mattino, and in 1904 she founded her own newspaper, Il Giorno, which she directed until her death in Naples in 1927.