English

Biography

 
Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher is an author, playwright, actor, storyteller, teacher, and theatre director. He has published around twenty books, including nine novels, collections of short stories, fairy tales for children, and educational publications for schools. He is also the author of storytelling plays, spoken word poetry videos, a blog, and a podcast focused on contemporary news from Italy and abroad.

He was born in Naples in 1968 to an Eritrean father and an Italian mother. He is a forerunner among Black Italian writers and a pioneering Afro-Italian artist, being one of the very first Afro-Italian theatre actors, authors, and playwrights in Italian history. However, the definition he still prefers today is "born between two Souths — Africa and Naples."

Since 1999, he has been married to Cecilia Moreschi — a drama therapist, actress, director, and expert in children's theatre. They currently live in Rome with their two sons.

For almost thirty years, Ghebreigziabiher has led workshops and experiential labs in theatre, storytelling, and social animation within clinical and therapeutic institutions, including drug rehabilitation and mental health centers. He has also spoken at numerous conferences on educational topics aimed at professionals.

He earned a degree in Computer Science from Sapienza University of Rome, and perhaps not coincidentally, in 2019 he decided to close all his social media profiles and pages, permanently leaving Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and similar platforms.

At Sapienza University, he also studied acting with Saverio D'Ercole and attended various acting workshops — including one led by Gary Brackett from The Living Theatre of New York. From 1994 to 2002, he participated in group leadership and management sessions conducted by psychoanalyst Harold Bridger, a founding member of the Tavistock Institute.

His first book, Sunset (Tramonto, Italian edition: Lapis, 2002; Tempesta Editore, 2017), was selected in 2003 by the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich, Germany, for the White Ravens, a recognition awarded to children’s books from around the world considered to be of exceptional quality.

Here are some of his other books, among the Italian editions:

2006 Mondo giovane (Young world), a collection of short stories for school students (Editrice La Ginestra)

2006  Il poeta, il santo e il navigatore (The poet, the saint and the navigator), novel (Fermento Editore)

2007 Lo scrigno cosmopolita (The cosmopolitan trunk), a collection of short stories for school students (Editrice La Ginestra)

2008 Tra la terra e l'acqua (Between earth and water), an illustrated children book(Camelozampa)

2008 L'intervallo (The interval), a novel (Intermezzi Editore)

2013 Il dono della diversità (The gift of diversity), a collection of short stories (Tempesta Editore)

2013 Amori diversi (Different loves) a collection of short stories (Tempesta Editore)
2014 Roba da bambini (Kids' stuff) a collection of short stories (Tempesta Editore)
2015 La truffa dei migranti (The hoax of the migrants), a novel (Tempesta Editore)
2016 Elisa e il meraviglioso mondo degli oggetti (Elisa and the wonderful world of objects), a novel (Tempesta Editore)
2017 Tramonto, la fiaba del figlio di Buio e Luce (Sunset, the Tale of the Son of Dark and Light), new edition, a picture book for children (Tempesta Editore)
2017 Carla senza di Noi (Carla without Us), a novel (Graphofeel Editions) 
2019 Lo strano caso del professor Mann (The strange vice of professor Mann), a novel (Ofelia Editions)
2019 Matematica delle parole (Mathematics of words), a novel (Toutcourt Editions)
2020 A morte i razzisti (Racists to death), a novel (Oakmond Publishing)

2021 Agata nel paese che non legge (Agata in the country that does not read), a novel (NEM Editore)

2022 Nato da un crimine contro l'umanità. Dialogo con mio padre sulle conseguenze del colonialismo italiano, prefazione di Salvatore Palidda (Born of a crime against humanity. Dialogue with my father on the consequences of Italian colonialism, with preface by Salvatore Palidda), an essay (Tab Edizioni)

2023 Io, Blu e Rosso (Me, Blue and Red), a novel (Edizioni Bette)

2024 Specchi delle nostre brame (Mirrors of our desires), a novel (Edizioni Bette)

Many of his stories and articles have been published in various literary and cultural magazines.
He has performed his stories throughout Italy, including at the Evocamondi Literature Festival, Voci Afro-Italiane Literature Festival, National Conference on Culture and Migration Literature, All'incrocio dei sentieri Literature Festival, National Seminar for Intercultural Education, International Symposium on Identity, Gender and Inequality, Idee Migranti, Pigorini Museum, Teatro dei Popoli Festival, Intercultural Theatre in Scene: Identity (Rassegna di teatro interculturale), Festa dei Popoli, RO.MENS Festival, Eirenefest, and others.

  

In 2005, he created the Theatre Storytelling Laboratory and served as the artistic director of the Italian Theatre Storytelling Festival, “The Gift of Diversity,” until 2019.
He is among the coordinators of the international storytelling network, Red Internacional de Cuentacuentos. In 2016, he founded the international narrators’ network Storytellers for Peace.
Since 2007, you can watch clips on his YouTube channel, where he often tells true stories — many with English subtitles — as well as storytelling and spoken word poetry videos. In 2023, after 15 years, the podcast version of his blog Storie e Notizie (Stories and News) was launched.