Correntes D’Escritas Festival honors Luís Sepúlveda
This edition will have a special focus on the work and legacy of Luís Sepúlveda, a Chilean writer who died last year, victim of covid-19, a few months after participating in Correntes D’Escritas.
The event is scheduled for February 26th and 27th, and, despite having a more concentrated program, it will gather 154 participants, of which more than 100 will be authors, who will star in several initiatives in honor of the writer Luís Sepúlveda.
In addition to the fact that the literary magazine of the event, which this year completes 20 issues, is entirely dedicated to Luís Sepúlveda, addressing his professional and personal spectrum, the work of the Chilean author will also serve as a starting point for the conversation tables, this time in online version, where authors and guests from various geographies of the Portuguese and Spanish languages will exchange ideas.
Afonso Cruz, Alex Gozblau, Álvaro Laborinho Lúcio, Catarina Sobral, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Hélia Correia, Josep Maria Espirol, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Lídia Jorge, Manuel Rui, Ondjaki, Onésimo Teotónio Almeida, Pepetela, Rui Zink, Simone Paulino, Valter Hugo Mãe, Maria Flor Pedroso, João Gobern and Carlos Vaz Marques are some of the authors who will participate in the tables.
After the opening ceremony of Correntes D’Escritas, also through digital platforms, which will have an intervention by the Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca, the inaugural conference will be invited by the writer Alberto Manguel, also a translator and editor, born in Argentina, and former director of the National Library of that South American country, which currently resides in Portugal.
Also on that first day of the festival, on February 26, the winner of the Correntes D’Escritas/Casino da Póvoa Prize will be known, to which 70 poetry works competed, which are being evaluated by a jury composed by Daniel Jonas, Inês Pedrosa, José António Gomes, Luís Caetano, and Marta Bernardes, who, meanwhile, will present the list of finalists.
The Correntes D’Escritas/Papelaria Locus and Children’s Illustrated/Porto Editora prizes, this year, with the confinement and closure of schools, were postponed to the 2022 edition, but the Dr. Luís Rainha Foundation Award will be awarded, which evaluates an unpublished literary work, whose theme is Póvoa de Varzim.
In addition to the activities and awards related to books, this year’s edition of Correntes D’Escritas will also include other art forms, namely a documentary by João Cayatte, presented last year, made from two festive issues, the 10th.ª and 20.ª, and also an exhibition of photographs by Daniel Mordzinski, centered on friendship and common projects with Luís Sepúlveda.
