Mozambique: Mia Couto wins the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages

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Mozambique: Mia Couto wins the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages

2:01 CAT | 03 Sep 2024

Photo: Lusa

Mozambican writer Mia Couto is the winner of the 2024 FIL (Guadalajara International Book Fair) Prize for Literature in Romance Languages, the jury announced yesterday at a press conference in Mexico.

The jury decided to award the prize unanimously, something that “says everything about the recognition of [Mia Couto’s] work, of what it means in literary terms, for the Portuguese language and for those who write literature in that suburb of the Portuguese language that is Mozambique,” said Portuguese essayist and professor Carlos Reis, who was part of the jury and was responsible for announcing the name of the winner.

This prize “recognises a remarkable literary work that includes chronicles, short stories and novellas”, the jury of seven literary critics and writers wrote.

The winner, who will receive a prize of US$150,000, was chosen from among 49 authors from 20 countries, who write in six languages: Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.

Mia Couto will be present at the 38th FIL in Guadalajara on November 30, the first day of this edition, which runs until December 8.

¡Mia Couto es el ganador del #PremioFIL 2024! 🏆

Por su innovación lingüística y para reconocer “una obra literaria notable que integra y entreteje la crónica, el cuento y la novela”, un jurado conformado por reconocidos escritores y especialistas decidió conceder, de forma… pic.twitter.com/fvO2J476X9

— FIL Guadalajara (@FILGuadalajara) September 2, 2024

In a video call from Mozambique [watch below], Mia Couto expressed his surprise at the award: “It was a great and beautiful surprise”.

In response to questions from journalists at the press conference broadcast online, the writer shared that “the first major issue” that concerns him at the moment is peace, recalling that he lives in a country “that is still at war”.

“I am also concerned about this false search for an identity statement, when Africa is busy asserting what its own universality is,” he said.

Mia Couto believes that Mozambique “has a huge challenge, which is to not forget”. “In my writing, I also fight against this erasure of history, this kind of ‘historicicide’,” he argued.

Recalling that he began his career as a journalist, the writer expressed concern about the crisis in journalism, “which could one day mean its death”.

“But it is not because of the threat of social media and technology, but because of one question: ‘Who owns the media today?’,” he argued.

This is not the first time that a Portuguese-speaking writer has been awarded the FIL Prize for Literature in Romance Languages.

Portuguese writers António Lobo Antunes and Lídia Jorge received the prize in 2008 and 2020, respectively, and Brazilians Nélida Piñon and Rubem Fonseca won in 1995 and 2003.

However, this is the first time that an African writer has been awarded.

Mia Couto was born in Beira, Mozambique, in 1955. He worked as a journalist and teacher, and is currently a biologist and writer.

Winner of the Camões Prize in 2013, Mia Couto is the author of, among others, “Jesusalém”, “O Último Voo do Flamingo”, “Vozes Anoitecidas”, “Estórias Abensonhadas”, “Terra Sonâmbula”, “A Varanda do Frangipani” and “A Confissão da Leoa”.

Translated into more than 30 languages, the writer was also awarded the Vergílio Ferreira Prize in 1999, the União Latina Prize for Romance Literature in 2007, and the Eduardo Lourenço Prize in 2011 for his body of work, among other distinctions.

“Terra Sonâmbula” was chosen as one of the 12 best African books of the 20th century, and “Jesusalém” was among the 20 best fiction books most published in France, according to the selection made by France Culture radio and Télérama magazine.

A new book by Mia Couto, “A Cegueira Do Rio”, is scheduled to be published in November.

“It takes place during the war between Portugal and Germany, with German soldiers making incursions into Mozambique and the following month Portugal sending the first of several military expeditions to the colonies. The fighting became widespread in late 1914 in southern Angola and northern Mozambique,” reads the synopsis released by the Leya publishing group.

The full programme for the 38th FIL in Guadalajara will be announced on 8 October.