Oceanos Prize 2022: Three Mozambicans among shortlisted writers

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Oceanos Prize 2022: Three Mozambicans among shortlisted writers

2:35 CAT | 09 Nov 2022

FILE - Timorese writer Luís Cardoso, author of the winning novel of Oceanos 2021, O Plantador de Abóboras, published in Portugal by publishing house Abysmo and in Brazil by Todavia [File photo: Daniel Rocha/Oceanos]

The final award ceremony will be held in Maputo on December 9th.

Three Mozambican writers are among the 10 authors shortlisted at the 19th edition of the Oceanos Prize, an award for Literature in Portuguese Language created in Brazil.

The three Mozambican writers, and the only ones from the African continent in the short-list are João Paulo Borges Coelho, with the work ‘Museum of the Revolution’, Pedro Pereira Lopes with ‘The Liquid Man’s Book’ and Teresa Noronha with ‘Tornado ‘.

The ten finalists include three nationalities: four Brazilians – Micheliny Verunschk, with O Som do Rugido da Onça; Maria Fernanda Elias Maglio, with Quem Tá Vivo Levanta a Mão,; Ana Martins Marques, with Risque esta Palavra, and Tatiana Salem Levy, with Vista Chinesa; three Mozambicans – João Paulo Borges Coelho, with Museu da Revolução; Pedro Pereira Lopes, with O Livro do Homem Líquido, and Teresa Noronha, with Tornado; and three Portuguese – Alexandra Lucas Coelho, with Líbano, labirinto; Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, born in Angola, with Maremoto, and José Gardeazabal, with Quarenena – Uma História de Amor.

The set of books was published in Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal. Only two of them were published in more than one country: Museum of the Revolution and Vista Chinesa – both published in Brazil and Portugal.

Intermediate Jury

The initial jury, made up of 122 poets, professors and literary critics, chose the two subsequent juries through the digital platform that receives the registered books. The intermediate jury, which selected the ten finalist works among the 65 semi-finalists, included Jeferson Tenório, Nina Rizzi, Paulo Scott and Prisca Agustoni, from Brazil; João Luís Barreto Guimarães and José Riço Direitinho, from Portugal; and Teresa Manjate, from Mozambique.

Final jury

The final jury, which reads and evaluates the ten finalist books to choose the three winners, includes Cristhiano Aguiar, Guilherme Gontijo Flores, Joselia Aguiar and Júlia de Carvalho Hansen, from Brazil; Artur Bernardo Minzo, from Mozambique; and Ana Cristina Leonardo and Helena Vasconcelos, from Portugal.

Events with finalist writers

To publicize the works selected at this stage, a cycle of conversations will be held with the finalist writers in Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal.

Three units of Livraria da Travessa – Pinheiros, in São Paulo; Leblon, in Rio de Janeiro, and Lisbon, in Portugal – welcome Brazilian and Portuguese writers between the last week of November and the first week of December. In Mozambique, the programming will take place in Maputo.

Announcement of winners

The announcement of the Oceanos winners takes place for the first time in a Portuguese-speaking country on the African continent. A delegation formed by the cultural manager and coordinator of Oceanos, Selma Caetano, the journalist and curator Isabel Lucas and the writer Luís Cardoso, winner of the Oceanos 2021, goes to Mozambique to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Mozambique.

On December 8th and 9th, Oceanos will host a literary program in Maputo with writers from Brazil, Mozambique and Portugal. On the 9th December, at 6:00 p.m. in Mozambique (1:00 p.m. in Brazil and 5:00 p.m. in Portugal), the winners of Oceanos 2022 will be announced in an award ceremony broadcast in real time on YouTube.

The total value of the prize is 250,000 reais: 120,000 for first place, 80,000 for second and 50,000 for third place.

The 2,452 titles initially competing for Oceanos 2022 were written by authors from 17 different nationalities and published in seven countries: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, United States, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Portugal.