Zacarias Lucas Lázaro Nguenha was announced the winner of the Prémio Literário Fernando Leite Couto 2024 in Maputo, Mozambique, on Thursday, July 17, 2024.
Fernando Leite Couto was a Mozambican journalist, writer, poet, and translator. Prémio Literário Fernando Leite Couto (English: The Fernando Leite Couto Literary Prize) was founded in his honour by the Mia Couto-led Fernando Leite Couto Foundation. It aimed to stimulate the production of literary works in poetry and prose (novels, chronicles, dramatic texts, and short stories), by new Mozambican authors in Portuguese. Previous winners have included Macvildo Bonde (2017), Otildo Justino Guido (2019), Maya Ângela Macuácua and Geremias Mendoso (2022), Gibson João and Óscar Fanheiro (2023), and Francisco Panguana Junior (2024).
The 2025 edition, dedicated to poetry, was presided over by a jury led by Matteo Angius, who announced that Zacarias Lucas Lázaro Nguenha was the winner at the Fernando Leite Couto Foundation in Maputo. The Manica-born poet and professor won the award for his submission Sewurar a Linguagem, a poetic proposal that impressed with its aesthetic maturity and technical mastery. From over a hundred contestants across Mozambique, his stood out for transforming language into a living, sensitive body, reflecting the pulse of the nation and the author’s intimate unease.
Jury president Matteo Angius said, “Sewing language together appealingly combines universal elements that are gaining a new dimension in poetic language, explored as constructed living matter, creating a poetry that is simultaneously physical and abstract. It is a work of rhythm and meaning that reveals technical mastery and a highly mature writing style.”
Zacarias Lucas Lázaro Nguenha was born on February 20, 1994, in Munhinga, Sussundenga District, Manica Province. He is a Portuguese language teacher, holds a degree from the Catholic University of Mozambique, and is studying law at the University of Púnguè. He made his debut as an author in 2024 with the book “Confessions of the Dawn.”
Nguenha received 150,000 meticais, will have his work published by the Fernando Leite Couto Foundation, and will participate in a 30-day literary residency in Portugal, during which he will participate in various cultural activities, including the book presentation at the Óbidos International Literary Festival (FOLIO).
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