Digital Narratives: between literary experience and digital literacies
The Next Chapter Cafè, Hall 29
11.30 - 12.00
chairs: Pier Cesare Rivoltella, University of Bologna; Tiziana Mascia, Associazione Literacy Italia.
OPENING AND WELCOME
11.30 - 11.35
The chairs introduce the aims of the session and the work of the Digital Narratives Observatory, setting the context for the report and the discussion that follows.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION, CREATIVE EUROPE (DG EAC)
European Commission, Creative Europe (DG EAC)
11.35 - 11.45
chair: Dag Asbjørnsen
This presentation offers a European cultural and policy perspective on reading and the book sector within a transforming narrative ecosystem. Drawing on the priorities of the European Commission, it examines why reading and literature remain central to European cultural agendas, and how contemporary cultural and educational policies are engaging with emerging digital and hybrid narrative forms alongside traditional books.
REPORT PRESENTATION – DIGITAL NARRATIVES OBSERVATORY REPORT: MAPPING THE NEW NARRATIVE ECOSYSTEM
11.45 - 12.00
chair: Pier Cesare Rivoltella, Università di Bologna – Tiziana Mascia, Associazione Literacy Italia
This session introduces the Digital Narratives Observatory Report, which presents findings from a survey conducted among Bologna Children's Book Fair exhibitors and offers an initial mapping of emerging trends in digital narratives for children and young people. The presentation provides an overview of emerging formats and highlights key trends in digital stories for children and young people, offering guidance for those working in publishing, libraries, schools, and reading promotion. The Report is in dialogue with the special issue of Scholé 1/2026, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by Morcelliana, dedicated to digital narratives between literary experience and digital literacies.
ROUND TABLE SESSION
We're not digitizing books, we're inventing new narrative languages
12.00 - 12.50
chair: Jennifer Rowsell, University of Sheffield (UK).
Rowsell chairs the roundtable and opens the discussion by outlining how young readers’ practices, expectations and forms of engagement with stories are changing today, providing a shared framework for the discussion. She will introduce ways to think about reading as a multimodal, participatory, and immersive practice and what this means for text design and varied ways of telling stories. The transformations of digital narratives raise concrete questions for those who write, design, publish, teach, and promote stories for children and adolescents. From interactive forms to immersive experiences, from transmedia storytelling to artificial intelligence, narrative practices bring new responsibilities and new choices — concerning the quality of stories, the role of the reader, and modes of access and participation. Building on the work of the Digital Narratives Observatory, the roundtable brings together international researchers, writers, publishers, and cultural professionals to engage with examples, perspectives, and criteria that can help orient reflection within this evolving landscape, and to open a space for dialogue on possible directions for digital narratives. A guiding question for the discussion is: “Can you share an example of a digital narrative you consider successful as literature — and what design and storytelling choices contribute to the quality of the reading experience?”
PANEL
Scott Rettberg University of Bergen, Center for Digital Narrative (Norway).
As Director of the Center for Digital Narrative, Scott Rettberg will present an example from his work on digital and immersive narratives. His presentation will explore how virtual and interactive environments can redefine the role of the reader and open new forms of sensory, spatial, and collaborative engagement with stories.
Kate Pullinger Novelist (Canada - UK).
Author of “Inanimate Alice”, a pioneering transmedia narrative that follows a young protagonist's growth through interactive online episodes, Kate Pullinger will show how digital narratives can maintain coherence and emotional depth while transforming the reader into an active explorer of the story world.
Davide Morosinotto Novelist (Italy).
Drawing on a recent experiment with generative writing and artificial intelligence, Davide Morosinotto will show how AI can enter the creative process as a tool for invention and dialogue— to extend, rather than replace, the author's creative role in crafting stories.
Federica de Quagliatti Senior Journal Specialist at Frontiers for Young Minds (Switzerland).
Bringing the experience of Frontiers for Young Minds—a project awarded a Special Mention at the BolognaRagazzi CrossMedia Award 2025—Federica de Quagliatti will illustrate how digital publishing can open up scientific knowledge to young readers by involving them directly in processes of inquiry, interpretation, and dialogue, positioning participation as a core editorial and narrative principle.
CLOSING REMARKS
Jennifer Rowsell, University of Sheffield (UK).
Rowsell will briefly connect the perspectives emerging from the roundtable to the educational and cultural dimensions of digital reading, highlighting how participatory, immersive and multimodal narrative forms can open spaces for learning, creativity and narrative citizenship for young readers.
Thursday 16 April 2026
Moving Mountains: motivating readers in the age of artificial intelligence
Sala Melodia, Centro Servizi, Blocco B
10.00 - 11.40
OPENING
10.00 - 10.15
chairs: Jennifer Rowsell, University of Sheffield (UK); Tiziana Mascia, Associazione Literacy Italia.
In recent years, teachers and researchers share the same concern: the number of young readers is declining, and with it, interest, attention, and the capacity for deep reading. Many teachers describe the difficulty of motivating a generation immersed in a constant flow of images, sounds, and digital narratives. A substantial body of research has sought answers by comparing reading skills between print and screen. These studies, while valuable, adopt a predominantly cognitive perspective—yet we have long known that reading is also a social and cultural practice involving emotions, identity, and relationships. The contributions of this day will offer teachers and librarians a sociocultural perspective to understand how young people read today and how they construct and share stories through books, videos, games, and digital platforms. A perspective that recognizes the diversity of genres, formats, and ways of engaging with texts. The reading practices of young people, if observed and valued, can become a starting point for bringing them closer to literacy. What they do spontaneously in their daily lives can become an opportunity to rediscover the pleasure of reading, interpreting, and telling stories. The day will offer educators and librarians moments for reflection, ideas, and experiences to explore, together with students, new forms of storytelling across print and digital environments.
