Giuseppe Storti: A lawyer by profession and a journalist and writer by passion - by Maria Teresa De Donato

 

Giuseppe Storti: A lawyer by profession and a journalist and writer by passion

by Maria Teresa De Donato

 

 

Dear friends,

Today, I have the pleasure and honor of hosting on my blog and virtual cultural lounge my friend and fellow author Giuseppe Storti, a man of immeasurable cultural and human depth, whose work brings him great honor.

Having had the opportunity to meet him at several online events, I was able to personally witness not only his high level of culture but also his profound and genuine sensitivity to social issues.

Just to give you a brief biography, Giuseppe Storti, a lawyer by profession (specializing in Administrative Law and Administrative Sciences), is also a journalist and writer by passion. He has been a member of the Campania Register of Journalists since 1982; he is an expert in Political and Institutional Communication; he has collaborated for decades with "Il Mattino di Napoli"; and he has been the editor of numerous newspapers and portals. He currently collaborates with daily and monthly newspapers.

 

MTDD: Hello, Giuseppe, and welcome to our cultural space.

GS: First of all, I am honored and delighted by this opportunity, thanks to your kind availability. Speaking through your highly followed channels to an American audience and beyond is essential to me. Books must travel through space to be known and read. So thank you for this. But I also feel I must thank you for your kind words about me.

 

MTDD: Thank you for your kind words. It's my pleasure. Giuseppe, the brief introduction I've given to you and your activities represents just the tip of the iceberg of what has been, and continues to be, your professional, cultural, and social commitment. It would be impossible, in this context, to list in detail all your interests and the roles you've held so far in your life.

So let's start relatively recently, specifically 2021.

GS: My first novel was published in 2021. And like a first love, the first book you write is unforgettable. It's always exciting for me to revisit it, to reread its pages. The title is: Il tempo fermo. Anatomia di un incontro per caso. Published by Guida Editori, a historic Neapolitan publishing house. It is a book that celebrates the value of memory and the recollections that represent our identity and our history. Indeed, we are all nothing if we don't remember what we were. We have a duty to remember, to sow its traces for future reference. The best way is to immortalize our memories and the memory of our lives through writing. Writing, as the great author Umberto Eco said, is immortality in reverse.

 

MTDD: In addition to your literary output, would you like to tell us about any awards you've received?

GS: ... In 2021, as mentioned above, I published "Il tempo fermo" with Guida Editori, a novel that was a finalist in the 2021 Gold Writer Officina Edizione Literary Competition. One of my short stories, "Sognando Segni" – Storia di un rider romano, was published by two different publishing houses, earning a special honorable mention in the 2022 "Emozioni" Literary Competition. I am a member of the National Academy of Art and Literature in Rome and a member of the 3C Coordination of Communicators for Culture. In January 2024, my book was published: Con orgoglio, da Scampia. Storie di periferie esistenziali e di riscatto sociale (With Pride, from Scampia. Stories of Existential Peripheries and Social Redemption). Published by Giannini in Naples. Since 2022, I have been a member of the Academy of Art and Literature in Rome. In 2023, I published a story titled "Friendship and Love" in a collection of ten themed stories entitled "Agorà, Friendship Is Made in Ten," edited by the writer Eugenio Patticini. Since 2024, I have been a member of the cultural association "Officina Mediterranea" for the Lazio and Campania regions. In 2024, I published a story titled "Certe notti" in an anthology of ten stories entitled "Agorà, the Meaning of an Incipit," edited by the writer Eugenio Patticini. In May of this year, I received a "HIGH MERIT FOR LITERATURE" award from the Italian Academy of Art and Literature in Rome for my book Con orgoglio, da Scampia. Storie di periferie esistenziali e di riscatto sociale (With Pride from Scampia. Stories of Existential Peripheries and Social Redemption). Edito dalla Giannini di Napoli. Also in May, I placed third in the national literary competition organized by the Ipazia Cultural Association, with the book "With Pride, from Scampia. Stories of Existential Peripheries and Social Redemption," and received a prize plaque in the Published Novels section. In May 2025, I published a short story titled "Aldebaran: The Brightest Star" in the ten-short-story anthology "And if the Universe Were Only a Point Inside Us," edited by writer Eugenio Patticini. In March of the same year, I published my third book on Amazon, "Prof. Michele Storti - The Headmaster of All." In August 2025, I was a finalist in the literary competition "I Want to Tell You Thank You!" organized by the periodical Edizione Il Saggio.

In October 2025, I published a story titled "Rara Avis" (Rare Bird) in the solidarity anthology edited by writer Monica Pasero, titled "SUPER HEROES LIKE YOU AND ME."

In January of this year, my fourth book, "The Ways of the Heart - Getting Lost to Find Yourself," was published by ASTRA EDITORI of Casoria.

I am also the author and curator of the cultural page "Il Salotto di Nonna Speranza" on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554338573065

My favorite quote is: "Those who don't read, at 70, will have lived only one life: their own. Those who read will have lived 5,000 years: they were there when Cain killed Abel, when Renzo married Lucia, when Leopardi admired the infinite... because reading is immortality backwards. Umberto Eco."

 

MTDD: I congratulate you on all your publications and the many well-deserved awards you've received so far.

GS: Thank you. I only hope I've left positive messages and shared values ​​in the hearts and minds of those who read my work. In these tumultuous times we live in, it's important to convey values ​​to counter the many negative values ​​that plague our environment.

 

MTDD: I completely agree with you. Today, Giuseppe, I'd like to focus on some of your literary works, specifically Il tempo fermo – Anatomia di un incontro per caso and Con orgoglio, da Scampia – Storie di periferie esistenziali e di riscatto sociale.

In the synopsis of Il tempo fermo, we read:

"... On an ordinary day in a suspended life, something new happens. ...[Carlo] looks up, turns his head, and sees her. And then a hurricane of emotions sweeps through his soul. And everything changes!"

 

Giuseppe, does chance really exist, in your opinion, or are events planned by Someone or Something beyond us, through which we are given the opportunity to choose and, consequently, to take one path rather than another?

GS: Chance exists. Just as destiny exists. The classical culture we inherited from Greco-Roman civilization confirms this. But free will, as Saint Augustine put it, exists. Therefore, we can change the course of destiny if we have the strength and will. Carlo is an enigmatic character who lives in a suspended time with the will to remain there. When he accidentally meets the woman who can overcome his frozen time, he lacks the courage to continue, changing the course of his existence. Love requires courage. Above all, the courage to change our lives, if necessary, by projecting it onto other, totally different paths. If courage is lacking, everything remains immobile.

 

MTDD: What role do parents' advice and admonitions play, and is it right that they play, in the choices they will ultimately make in their lives? And if so, shouldn't one ask when it's best to listen to them and when to act on one's own? How should one proceed?

GS: A fundamental role. Indeed, the first education is received within the family. Today, parents' schedules seem too preoccupied with other activities, rather than the fundamental one of educating their children. After the family, school comes, which is equally important and crucial for instilling in children the primary values ​​that will permeate their entire lives. The protagonists of my novels always remember family and school throughout their adult journeys. Marco, in particular, the protagonist of the book "With Pride from Scampia," states with conviction that family and school saved him from the path of evil. Only family and school can, even more than justice and law enforcement, shape good citizens who will live within the law.

 

MTDD: If you had to list some salient points of this new publication of yours, some life lessons, which would you choose and why?

GS: First and foremost, love, which for me is the beginning of everything. A beginning that, however, will never end. Not even with the physical death of the woman loved by Carlo, the novel's protagonist. After love comes the protagonists' social and political commitment, particularly in the fight against all forms of illegality and in combating the Camorra, even at the cost of their own lives. Being active citizens, participating in the democratic life of their country, is a civic and moral duty that cannot and must not be shirked.

 

MTDD: Let's now move on to one of your more recent publications: With Pride, from Scampia – Stories of Existential Peripheries and Social Redemption.

The Synopsis reads in part:

"... a story of lost souls who rediscover the broken thread of their existence, re-emerging from the mire into which they were cast, thus becoming protagonists of their own redemption. ..."

 

 

I'd like to analyze with you what I believe to be the key points of this statement, starting with the expression "lost souls."

How do you think one's soul is lost, and how do we reconcile the idea of ​​"free will," or however one wishes to define it, with our possible "guilt" and "responsibility" for a sick society characterized by often "absent" institutions?

GS: Pope Francis was the first to speak of existential peripheries, "non-places" where humanity is suffering and without alternatives, often drawn by the sirens of crime to survive degradation and abandonment. In the silence and absence of the State and other institutions. Here, we need to intervene beyond the police, strengthening schools and encouraging volunteers and social services. The many existential peripheries across Italy must no longer be left to their own devices, but must be occupied by the overwhelming force of the state and other local institutions. A fundamental role, already played commendably, falls to the frontier parishes, which in these places of hardship and suffering often make up for the state's shortcomings and absences.

MTDD: How do you emerge from the mire into which, knowingly or unknowingly, you've fallen?

GS: It’s sufficient just to read the story of the protagonist of the novel about the kids of Scampia. Marco emerges, working hard, even in precarious conditions, without being tempted by the easy lure of delinquency. Then he meets the girl of his dreams. He finds a secure job. The story could end there. Instead, he begins a journey of social commitment for the redemption of other boys and girls, which he and Mara, who has become his wife, pursue, convinced that we are not born only for ourselves, but above all to help others find their own path.

 

MTDD: Awareness and determination: is anything else needed to become "protagonists of our own redemption?"

GS: Definitely. But love, compassion, and mercy are also needed. All values ​​that have almost completely disappeared in the depressing, liquid society we live in, clouded by social media, which reduces us to automatons, devoid of the ability to develop critical thinking. The protagonists of my texts are positive heroes, hoping that their stories serve as examples and a source of hope for change.

 

MTDD: Is being born in Scampia—or, I might add, in any other place where poverty and crime abound and, in many cases, seem to go hand in hand—a fault or a cynical and unfair fate? And what does it really take to oppose "Evil" and do "Good"?

GS: Being born on the outskirts of the world shouldn't be equated with destiny. Simply put, those who must intervene must do so without delay. It's impossible to divide the world into rich and poor. Certainly, the historical period we live in isn't encouraging. It seems all is lost. But hope never disappoints. Men and women of good will must roll up their sleeves and fight with the weapons of social commitment and testimony, becoming pawns of change. I firmly believe that another world is possible.

 

MTDD: I fully agree with you, Giuseppe. What goals did you set out to achieve with Il tempo fermo and Con orgoglio, da Scampia, and what audience might be interested in reading them?

GS: My texts always tell positive stories. The main goal is to spread and demonstrate a core set of positive values ​​I believe in and that were instilled in me by my parents and all my teachers, whom I remember one by one, from elementary school to university.

 

MTDD: Giuseppe, it was an honor to have you as my guest, and, should the need arise, I remind you that you are always welcome. I'm sure there are many topics we could discuss together.

Before we leave, would you like to remind our readers how to contact you and where to purchase your books?

GS: It's my honor and pleasure to have had the opportunity to converse with such a superb professional and writer as you. The novels are available from their respective publishers, on Amazon, and in major national and international stores. Thank you for everything.