São Paulo, Dec. 10, 2025 (Lusa) - "Longarinas" by Ana Maria Vasconcelos and "Ressuscitar mamutes" by Silvana Tavano are the winners in the poetry and prose categories of the Oceanos Prize, which this year remained in Brazil, the organisation said on Tuesday.
The winners of the Oceanos - Portuguese Language Literature Prize were announced during a ceremony held at the Mário de Andrade Library in São Paulo, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, on Tuesday evening in Brazil and early Wednesday morning in Europe.
"Longarinas", by Alagoas poet Ana Maria Vasconcelos, was published by 7Letras, while the prose book "Ressuscitar mamutes", by São Paulo author Silvana Tavano, was published by Autêntica Contemporânea.
Before the winner was announced, the ten finalists were honoured with an artistic presentation directed by writer, composer and singer Luca Argel, who created a melody for each book.
Among the finalists for this year's edition were Portuguese authors Ricardo Gil Soeiro, Rui Cardoso Martins and Teresa Veiga, as well as Angolan author José Eduardo Agualusa and Mozambican author Mia Couto.
The ten finalist books of prose and poetry were selected from 3,142 entries from 488 different publishers in Brazil, Portugal and Portuguese-speaking African countries.
In poetry, the finalists were "Lições da Miragem" (Lessons from the Mirage) by Ricardo Gil Soeiro, "As Coisas do Morto" (The Things of the Dead) by Mozambican Francisco Guita Jr., "Coram Populo - Poesia Reunida Livro 2" (Coram Populo - Collected Poetry Book 2) by Brazilian Maria do Carmo Ferreira, “Longarinas” (Longarinas) by Ana Maria Vasconcelos, and "O Pito do Pango & Outros Poemas" (O Pito do Pango & Other Poems) by fellow Brazilian Fabiano Calixto.
In prose, the list of five finalists consisted of "A Cegueira do Rio" (The Blindness of the River) by Mia Couto, "As Melhoras da Morte" (The Best of Death) by Rui Cardoso Martins, "Mestre dos Batuques" (Master of the Batuques) by José Eduardo Agualusa, "Vermelho Delicado" (Delicate Red) by Teresa Veiga, and the winner "Ressuscitar Mamutes" (Resurrecting Mammoths) by Silvana Tavano.
On stage, Luca Argel declared that he had never done anything like this before, "an incredible challenge, like diving into an ocean, reading the ten books and finding the melodies within each one".
This performance in honour of the finalists also featured singer-songwriter Iara Rennó, who sang "Elástica", a song she wrote herself based on a poem by Mário de Andrade, a key figure in Brazilian Modernism, and percussionist Victória dos Santos.
The ceremony was also marked by an intervention by indigenous writer and activist Daniel Munduruku, who recalled the importance of knowing Brazil's indigenous literature.
"This is necessary for Brazilian society to see itself through the convex mirror and thus realise how much it has lost by leaving such rich perspectives out of the construction of an identity that is made up of our ancestry," he said, to the ovation of the audience.
The event was also attended by Rodrigo Massi, director of the library, who opened the evening, and by the coordinator of the award and director of Oceanos Cultura, Selma Caetano, who welcomed the audience and celebrated the centenary of that institution, recalling the generations of writers, musicians and artists of various nationalities who are the heirs of Mário de Andrade.
The Portuguese finalists were presented by the curator of Oceanos por Portugal, Isabel Lucas, the African finalists were presented by Rita Chaves, professor at the University of São Paulo and specialist in African Literature in Portuguese, and the Brazilian finalists were presented by Manuel da Costa Pinto.
According to the Brazilian curator of the award, the winner of the poetry category, "Longarinas", Ana Maria Vasconcelos' fourth book, "favours the short form to deal with the passage of time and permanence; poetry that is organised around the minimal and observation".
The poet, a native of the state of Alagoas, had already competed for the Oceanos Prize in 2024, having been a semi-finalist with the book "O rosto é uma máquina aquosa" (Ofícios Terrestres).
Regarding "Ressuscitar Mamutes" (Resurrecting Mammoths), Silvana Tavano's second novel, Manuel da Costa Pinto highlighted that this work blends the registers of essay and fiction, crossing speculation and scientific experiments with the account of an experience of mourning.
"The result is a narrative that imaginatively and movingly addresses the possibilities of dealing with time, of redeeming and changing the past (and therefore the future) through imagination," he added.
The distinguished authors receive a total cash prize of 300,000 reais (€47,400), divided into 150,000 reais (€23,700) for each of the winners.
Oceanos is carried out through the Culture Incentive Law of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, and is sponsored by Banco Itaú and the Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries of Portugal, with the support of Itaú Cultural, the Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries of Cabo Verde and the institutional support of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).
The Oceanos Prize is administered by the Oceanos Association in Portugal and Oceanos Cultura in Brazil.
Last year's winners were Portuguese poet Nuno Júdice, with "Uma colheita de silêncios" (A Harvest of Silences), and Brazilian writer Micheliny Verunschk, with the novel "Caminhando com os mortos" (Walking with the Dead).
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