Estoril Sol launches Literary Awards again despite the pandemic crisis
With the intention of boosting Portuguese Letters, Estoril Sol renewed this year the attribution of the Fernando Namora Literary Prize and the Agustina Bessa-Luís Revelation Literary Prize, in honor of the two great writers, despite the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. devastating the Country and the World.
By persisting in the institution of its Literary Awards, Estoril Sol clearly reflects the company’s determination not to give in to adverse circumstances, in the name of a close and long-standing relationship with Culture. The jury, common to both Awards, will be chaired by Guilherme D‘Oliveira Martins.
For the second year in a row, the deadline for receiving original works and competing novels was changed, due to the constraints imposed by the pandemic. According to the regulations of the 24th edition of the Fernando Namora Literary Prize and the 14th edition of the Agustina Bessa-Luís Revelation Literary Prize, applications can be submitted until the next 31st of July.
The Fernando Namora Literary Prize, which is published annually, is reserved for published novels, and has a value of 15 thousand euros. Remember that Francisco José Viegas, with his novel “A Luz de Pequim”, was the unanimous winner of the jury in 2020.
In the minutes, the jury noted that “A Luz de Pequim” is a “novel of evaluation of past experiences and current uncertainties”, distinguishing itself as “a work that questions time and what we can do with it. What remains for us is, above all, a complex set of characters and their respective lives, with their achievements and failures”.
The Jury will also be common to the Agustina Bessa-Luís Revelation Literary Award, which has been regularly awarded since 2008 by Estoril Sol, with the assumed objective of stimulating the emergence of new values.
It is recalled that Estoril Sol eliminated, as of 2016, the rule that imposed the limit of 35 years of age for candidates, which widened the scope of the competition. It remains, however, mandatory for the competing novel to be unpublished, and by a Portuguese author, “without any published work in the genre”.
The winning novel of the Agustina Bessa-Luís Revelation Literary Award, in 2020, was “Escavadoras”, by Marta Pais Oliveira. The Prize has a value of 10 thousand euros and, under the terms of the Regulation, the work will be published by Editora Gradiva, in accordance with the existing protocol with Estoril Sol.
When choosing “Escavadoras”, the jury considered it to be “a novel that attracts not only for the oneiric strands how the narrative is organized, but also for the feeling of loss that unites the existential universe of the characters. A mournful point of view guides and organizes human relationships and, no less relevant fact, the family tragedy experienced in the novel”.