Mozambican Juvenal Bucuane wins the 2025 José Craveirinha Literature Prize

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Mozambican Juvenal Bucuane wins the 2025 José Craveirinha Literature Prize

2:42 CAT | 19 Jun 2025

File photo: DR

Writer Juvenal Bucuane is the winner of the 2025 José Craveirinha Literature Prize, the highest award for literature and culture in Mozambique, the Mozambican Writers Association (AEMO) announced today.

In a statement, AEMO said that the jury, chaired by writer and essayist Sara Jonas, chose Juvenal Bucuane because he is a writer who “has made a significant contribution to the valorization of collective memory and the distinct cultivation of memorialism in Mozambican literature”, adding that his writing is “studied and discussed in academic and literary circles”.

The same jury justifies the award by indicating that Juvenal Bucuane, essayist and fiction writer, is “an emblematic figure in Mozambican literature, with consolidated public recognition”.

The José Craveirinha Literature Prize is worth US$25,000 (€21,700) and was established in 2003 in honour of the poet, first president and co-founder (1922-2003) of AEMO in 1981. Until 2007, this prize was awarded to the best book of the year and, from 2009 onwards, it began to recognise the career of a Mozambican writer, poet or essayist whose work has enriched Mozambican literary art and culture.

The José Craveirinha Literature Prize award ceremony is scheduled for 23 June, according to the AEMO press release.

Juvenal Bucuane was born in the province of Gaza, in southern Mozambique, on October 23, 1951. A member of AEMO, where he has served as secretary-general and vice-president of the General Assembly, he holds a degree in Linguistics and Law from Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM).

His list of published works includes “A Raiz e o Canto” (1984), “Requiem: com os olhos secos” (1987), “Xefina” (1989), “A Denúncia” (2003), “Epicentro” (2005), “Sal da Terra: Histórias do nosso chão” (2005), “Crendice ou Crença – Quando os manes ancestrais se tornam deuses” (2012), “Geração Charrua: Uma juventude literata ao ritmo de seu tempo 1963-1986” (2022), “Masingita — ou a subtileza do incesto” (2022), among others. He is a co-founder of the now-defunct literary magazine “Charrua” and was the coordinator of the “Ler e Escrever” page of the Mozambican newspaper Domingo in the 1990s.

Source: Lusa