Lisbon, Nov. 19, 2024 (Lusa) - Portuguese writer Francisco Mota Saraiva has won the José Saramago Literary Prize, worth €40,000, for his novel "Morramos ao menos no Porto" (Let's at least die in Porto). The organisation announced on Tuesday that Porto Editora will publish the novel in Portugal.
The work, which will be available in bookshops in 2025, will also be published in Brazil by Globo Livros and distributed in all Portuguese-speaking countries.
Promoted by the Círculo de Leitores Foundation, with the support of the José Saramago Foundation, Porto Editora and Globo Livros, the prize was awarded during a ceremony in the large auditorium of the Belém Cultural Centre (CCB), the room where the Portuguese State received and honoured José Saramago in 1998, the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The writer Adriana Lisboa, winner of the prize in 2003 and a member of this year's jury, emphasised the fact that the book has "an almost musical quality" and "a very particular style, almost a particular language", which make up "a merciless" and "courageous" novel.
Born in Coimbra in 1988, Francisco Mota Saraiva has a law degree and a master's degree in law and management and has worked as a lawyer and consultant.
In 2021, the Directorate-General for Books, Archives, and Libraries awarded him a literary creation grant and in 2023, the Eça de Queiroz Foundation awarded him a literary residency.
"Aqui onde canto e ardo" was her first novel, winner of the Agustina Bessa-Luís Literary Revelation Prize 2023, published in September this year.
The José Saramago Prize was established in 1999 and is awarded every two years. In 2021, the pandemic forced the award to be postponed until 2022, when Brazilian writer Rafael Gallo was honoured with "Dor fantasma".
This year's jury included writers and previous winners Adriana Lisboa and Paulo José Miranda, Pilar del Rio, president of the José Saramago Foundation, Guilhermina Gomes, representing the Círculo de Leitores Foundation and president of the jury, and writer Lídia Jorge, an honorary member.
The José Saramago Literary Prize was established to celebrate the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature award to the author of "Memorial do Convento". It was aimed at young authors whose first edition had been published in a Lusophone country.
According to the organisation, "hundreds of applications were submitted from all Portuguese-speaking countries" for this 13th edition of the prize.
In previous editions, the José Saramago Prize has honoured writers such as Paulo José Miranda, José Luís Peixoto, Adriana Lisboa, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Valter Hugo Mãe, João Tordo, Andréa del Fuego, Ondjaki, Bruno Vieira Amaral, Julián Fuks, Afonso Reis Cabral and Rafael Gallo.
AL/ADB // ADB.
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