Fulvio Tomizza (26 January 1935 – 21 May 1999) was an Italian writer. He was born in Giurizzani di Materada in Istria, to a middle-class family. His mother was Margherita Frank Trento, born into a poor family of Slavic extraction. His father, Ferdinando, reportedly was from an ancient family of southern Dalmatian Italian origins (reportedly, his ancestor's name was Zorzi Giurizzano, and he allegedly came to Istria in the 16th century from Dalmatia). Tomizza grew up in a zone where the dialect was mixed (Venetian mixed with Slavic words or Slavic mixed with Venetian words).