The semifinalists for Premio Oceanos 2023, a leading Brazilian literary award, were announced on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
Oceanos-Prêmio de Literatura em Língua Portuguesa (English: Oceanos-Prize for Literature in the Portuguese Language) is a Brazilian literary award for poetry and prose founded in 2003. In the first years, only works by Brazilian writers were eligible for the Portugal Telecom-sponsored award until 2007 when Portuguese-language works from other countries were considered. Now run by the Oceanos Foundation, in partnership with the Itaú Cultural Foundation and linked to the Brazilian Itaú Bank, it is worth $60,000. Some of its previous winners have been Luís Cardoso, Itamar Vieira Junior, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, and Marília Garcia.
The 2023 edition had 2,654 works submitted by 487 different publishers, 1,188 of which were poetry and 1,466 were prose. There were 41 semi-finalists (21 in poetry and 20 in prose) chosen by a jury of 159 people. Of these 41, 24 were Brazilian, 14 were Portuguese, two were Cape Verdeans, and one was Mozambican. The following writers of African descent made the semifinals;
Prose
- Siríaco e Mr. Charles, Joaquim Arena | Quetzal
- A última lua de homem grande, Mário Lúcio | Grupo Leya
- Matoa, the batuque fever, Hélder Muteia | Alcance
Poetry
- A vida não funciona como um relógio, Edimilson de Almeida Pereira | Quelônio
- Diário da Encruza, Ricardo Aleixo | Editora Segundo Selo
The five finalists in each of the award categories will be announced at the end of October.
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