Luigi "Bigio" Cecchi

He obtained his scientific A-levels in Bracciano in 1996, and then chose to continue his studies in Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, whilst beginning to work as a developer for Asterion Press, writing texts for *Nefarum – Creature del Terrore* and *Empirea*. In 2005, with his dystopian science fiction short story *Gen-Art*, he won the ‘Ce l’hai una storia’ prize organised by the University of Tuscia and chaired by Giorgio Manacorda, and the story was published as an eBook.
In 2008, he left university and chose to run a comic book shop in Bracciano, whilst devoting himself to writing fiction. His short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines (including *Nuova Prosa*), and he contributed to the collaborative noir novel *Verità Imperfette*, edited by Luigi De Pascalis and Nicola Verde. In 2011, he entered the Italo Calvino Prize, and his collection *Frammenti* was listed amongst the ‘honourable mentions’. A short piece from this collection (Amilcare) was published on the prize’s website. The collection submitted (Frammenti) was published in 2015 by Del Vecchio Editore under the title *Il Karma del Pinolo*, and was very well received by both independent and mainstream critics (*L’Indice*, *Il Giornale*, *Senzaudio*, *SulRomanzo*, *Mangialibri*). In 2016, the collection won the Premio Biblioteche di Roma.

With Tora Edizioni, he has published *The Author Instagrave*, *Musae Collection*, *Vanth Secret Files*, *Baba Yaga Secret Files*, *Ariadna Secret Files*, *Pandora Secret Files*, *Drizzit Omnibus* and a pin-up calendar.