In a statement sent to the Lusa news agency, the UÉ indicated that the jury for the 2025 edition of the award, which met this Thursday in Évora, decided, by majority, to award the Vergílio Ferreira Prize to Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, a Portuguese writer born in Angola.
The jury justified that the award is granted to the author of 'Esse Cabelo' "for the decisive role she has played in the revitalization of contemporary Portuguese narrative, constructing plots and composing characters that problematize issues of identity, displacement and colonialism, distancing herself from and dialoguing, in a unique register, with the Portuguese literary tradition".
"Considered one of the most important contemporary voices in Portuguese-language literature, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida has stood out for the way she addresses issues of identity, memory and belonging in her books, which have won numerous awards and been translated into ten languages," he said.
Established by the UÉ in 1996 to honor the writer it is named after, the Vergílio Ferreira Literary Prize aims to annually award the body of literary work of a relevant Portuguese-speaking author in the fields of fiction and/or essays.
As in previous editions, the award ceremony is scheduled for March 1st, the date on which the anniversary of the death of writer Vergílio Ferreira (1916-1996) is celebrated.
In the statement, the UÉ highlighted that Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida is the author of several books, including "Esse Cabelo", "Luanda", "Lisboa", "Paraíso", "As Telefones", "Três Histórias de Esquecimento", "Ferry" and "Toda a Ferida é uma Beleza", the latter winner of the APE/DGLAB 2024 Grand Prize for Romance and Novella.
"In 2023, Djaimilia received the FLUL Alumni Award, granted by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, the institution where the writer obtained her doctorate", recalled, noting that, starting this year, "the entrance exam for the University of São Paulo will include 'A Visão das Plantas' on the required reading list."
The Alentejo academy also highlighted that the writer taught at New York University, in the United States, and writes for the Brazilian magazine Quatro Cinco Um and the Portuguese news website Observador.
"'O Livro da Doença' is his most recent work," he added.
Pereira de Almeida is also a consultant for the Civil House of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic.
The jury for this edition was chaired by UÉ professor Antonio Sáez Delgado and included university professors Joana Matos Frias, António Apolinário Lourenço and Armando Duarte Senra Martins and literary critic Ricardo Viel.
The Vergílio Ferreira Prize was awarded, for the first time, to Maria Velho da Costa, followed by Maria Judite de Carvalho, Mia Couto, Almeida Faria, Eduardo Lourenço, Oscar Lopes, Victor Manuel de Aguiar e Silva and Agustina Bessa-Luís.
Manuel Gusmão, Fernando Guimarães, Vasco Graça Moura, Mário Cláudio, Mário de Carvalho, Luísa Dacosta, Maria Alzira Seixo, José Gil, Hélia Correia, Ofélia Paiva Monteiro, Lídia Jorge, João de Melo, Teolinda Gersão, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Nélida Piñon, Carlos Reis, Ana Luísa Amaral, Helena Carvalhão Buescu, Ondjaki, and Maria Irene Ramalho were the other winners.
