Africa-Press – Angola. Angolan writer João Melo won the DST Angola/ Camões 2023 Literature Prize, with the poetry collection “Diário do Medo”.
According to a press release, “Diário do Medo” unanimously won over the jury, who recognized in this work “a powerful creative process, in which it is evident how reality can function as a matter of literary creation, respecting aesthetic, technical and ethical values”.
For the president of the jury, José Mena Abrantes, the winning work denotes profound life experience, rigorously and simply using the right word metaphor and the appropriate rhythm for the content of each poem.
José Mena Abrantes further states that he has a comprehensive view of himself and his circumstances, with a critical attention to contemporary phenomena.
The book has not yet been released in Angola but should be released later this year and at the beginning of next year in Portugal and Spain, in a bilingual Portuguese-Spanish edition, by the publisher Libros Del Aire, with translation by Colombian poet and translator Lauren Mendinueta.
The work is being translated into English, Arabic and French, with a view to its publication in a wider literary market.
João Melo is an author, journalist and communications consultant. He is the founder of the Angolan Writers Association and the Angolan Academy of Literature and Social Sciences.
Currently, he divides his time between Luanda, Lisbon and Washington. Her works include poetry, short stories, novels, articles and essays and have been published in Angola, Brazil, Cuba, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA.
Several of his writings have been translated into English, French, German, Arabic and Chinese and published in international anthologies, periodicals and magazines.
The author was awarded the National Arts and Culture Prize of Angola 2009, in the literature category.
The DST Angola Camões Literature Prize is a joint initiative between DstGroup and the Camões Institute of Cooperation and Language that celebrates books published in poetry and prose by Angolan artists.
In 2018, DST Angola created an identical award in Angola, with the support of the Instituto Cultural Camões. Some of the previous winners of the prize worth 15,000 euros were Pepetela, Zetho Cunha Gonçalves and Benjamim M’Bakassy.
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