Mia Couto, Francisco Guita Jr, and José Eduardo Agualusa are among the Premio Oceanos 2025 finalists announced in São Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday, October 23, 2025.
Prêmio Oceanos 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, Marília Garcia, and Joaquim Arena.
From the 3,142 books submitted by 488 publishers by authors from 18 different nationalities for this year’s edition first selections were revealed on Wednesday, April 16, and the semi-finalists were made public on Tuesday, August 26. The finalists announced on Thursday include the following writers and poets of African descent;
Fiction
- A Cegueira do Rio, Mia Couto – Moçambique – editoras Caminho (PT), Companhia das Letras (BR) e Fundação Fernando Leite Couto (MZ)
- Mestre dos Batuques, José Eduardo Agualusa – Angola – editoras Quetzal (PT) e Tusquets (BR)
Poetry
- As Coisas do Morto, Francisco Guita Jr – Moçambique – editoras Gala-Gala (MZ) e Kacimbo (AO)
The winners of the Premio Oceanos 2025 will be announced in November 2025.
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