Dacia Maraini was born in 1936 in Italy. She spent her childhood in Japan, where she ended up in the harsh conditions of a post-war camp. Upon her return to Italy, she founded a literary magazine with associates and devoted herself to active creativity. Maraini was one of the founders of the Madalena Theatre in Rome and is the author of dozens of plays. She is the author of Memoirs of a Female Thief (1972), Bagheria (1993), Darkness (1999), and The Long Life of Mariana Ucria (1990), among others.
The memoir book Dear Pier Paolo was published in 2022 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Italian writer, director and publicist Pier Paolo Pasolini. The publication brings together personal letters, an intimate diary and the testimony of a friendship, revealing a wide panoramic view of an entire era.