ESTORIL SOL AWARDS
“Revolução” by Hugo Gonçalves is the winner of this year's edition.
With his novel “Revolução”, writer Hugo Gonçalves was the winner of this year's Fernando Namora Literary Prize, established by Estoril Sol, with a cash prize of 15,000 euros. The jury, chaired by Guilherme D́Oliveira Martins, defined the winning work as “a novel that delves into a recent period in Portuguese history, namely the last years of the dictatorship and the first years of democracy”.
In its minutes, the jury said: “With a direct, fluid and communicative style and a language that is allied to the expression of the time and its social actors, ‘Revolução’ is a book that stands out literarily, thanks to the way it ties up loose ends of recent Portuguese history, while always maintaining the narrative design of contradictory characters, heroic or tragic, strong or weak, and whose profiles question and comment on the novel's current readers and their respective ideological positions.”
Dulce de Souza Gonçalves won the Agustina Bessa-Luís Literary Revelation Prize 2024 with her novel “The Trial”, worth 10,000 euros, guaranteeing its publication by Editorial Gradiva, with which Estoril Sol has had a partnership since 2008, when the competition was launched in honor of the great writer.
Regarding “O Processo”, the jury, chaired by Guilherme D`Oliveira Martins, considered it to be “a novel centered on the historical memory of the last years of resistance to the Portuguese dictatorship and, at the same time, a projection of the cultural traits that ensured some of its emblematic references, namely those related to the phenomenon of Portuguese emigration to France, especially during the 1960s. Within this framework will evolve the description of (cultural and political) moments that were particularly relevant to the Portuguese community, such as the phenomenon of May 68 in France, with its poetic rebellions and creative insubmissions, and the Capela do Rato in Portugal in December 1972.”
According to the minutes, the award-winning work “is a novel that displays remarkable stylistic security and even great literary freshness with regard to the imagery of contemporary Portugal, with its flaws and virtues”.
As a tribute to the memory of Vasco Graça Moura, one of the most remarkable and versatile protagonists of Portuguese cultural life, Estoril Sol has set up a special Cultural Citizenship Award named after him.
The Vasco Graça Moura Award was intended to distinguish a writer, essayist, poet, journalist, translator or cultural producer who, throughout their career - or through an innovative and exceptionally important intervention - had contributed to dignifying and projecting the sector to which they belonged in the public arena.
In promoting this Award, Estoril Sol was convinced that its nature and scope would be a just recognition of Vasco Graça Moura's work and his fruitful and unusual creative versatility.
IN A SOLEMN CEREMONY, ON NOVEMBER 23, THE MINISTER OF CULTURE, PEDRO ADÃO E SILVA, HANDED OUT THE FERNANDO NAMORA AND AGUSTINA BESSA-LUIS LITERARY AWARDS, ESTABLISHED BY ESTORIL SOL, FOR 2021.
The Jury decided to attribute the Fernando Namora Literary Award, with a pecuniary value of 15 thousand euros, to the writer João Tordo for his novel "Felicidade".
In the minutes, it was recorded that "Felicidade" "is a novel of emotional and affective formation of a man who is a narrator, although without a name that identifies him throughout the book. The drama of loneliness of the narrator and novel's protagonist assumes great intensity and power to involve the reader. Also the gear is set on a precise but creative plane of realization. The names of the three female figures, Felicidade, Esperança, and Angélica, project a symbolism that expands the imaginative process itself."
In turn, regarding the Agustina Bessa-Luís Literary Revelation Award, with the value of 10 thousand euros, the Jury distinguished the journalist Catarina Gomes with the original work "Terrinhas".
In choosing "Terrinhas", the jury considered it "a novel that, from the point of view of a typically urban woman, confronts the rural and urban worlds. The memory of her parents, who almost religiously go to the land to bring potatoes, which invade the kitchen and the narrator's imagination, provides the ironic and, at times, even hilarious vision with which she evaluates her childhood and faces the pains and dramas of adulthood. The joy and touching tenderness in the assessment of life and death, associated with a fluid and elegant writing, give this novel an undeniable literary scope, which should be valued and divulged.
Finally, in the Vasco Graça Moura - Cultural Citizenship Award, the Jury decided to distinguish the editor Zeferino Coelho, praising the "action developed, for more than fifty years, as an editor and active promoter of the Portuguese language literature and culture in the world".
The Jury's minutes state that Zeferino Coelho "began his work as an editor in 1969 at Editorial Inova, where he remained until 1971, having joined Editorial Caminho in 1977. He was José Saramago's editor from the novel Levantado do Chão and all the other books published by the Portuguese Literature Nobel Prize winner until his death. He was also the editor of eight winners of the Camões Award, the most important in our language - in chronological order: José Craveirinha, Saramago himself, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Luandino Vieira, Arménio Vieira, Mia Couto, Germano Almeida and Paulina Chiziane. This group of authors published by Zeferino Coelho, among many others, shows the importance of the award winner's cultural intervention, especially regarding the national and international diffusion of Portuguese language literature".