Portuguese novelist Lídia Jorge has been named the recipient of the prestigious Camões Prize, the highest literary distinction in the Portuguese language.
One of the most celebrated Portuguese-language authors of her generation underscores the global reach and enduring influence of her literary work.
Jointly awarded by the governments of Portugal and Brazil, the annual prize recognizes an author’s lifetime contribution to Portuguese-language literature and celebrates the shared cultural heritage of the Portuguese-speaking world.
Born in Boliqueime, in Portugal’s Algarve region, Lídia Jorge is widely regarded as one of the leading voices in contemporary Portuguese literature. Since the publication of her groundbreaking debut novel O Dia dos Prodígios (The Day of the Prodigies) in 1980, she has built a relevant body of work exploring themes of memory, identity, colonialism, democracy, and the human condition. English translations include The Wind Whistling in the Cranes; The Migrant Painter of Birds; Murmuring Coast. and The Painter of Birds.
Her novels, essays, short stories, children’s books, and poetry have been translated into more than twenty languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, and Hebrew, introducing her work to readers around the world.
In 2022, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst officially inaugurated the Lídia Jorge Chair in Portuguese Studies with the presence of the celebrated writer.
Lídia Jorge‘s national and international reputation has been reinforced by an extraordinary list of honors throughout her career. Among her many distinctions are the the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature (2000), the Luso-Spanish Prize for Art and Culture (2014), the FIL Award for Literature in Romance Languages (2020), the Grand Prize of the Portuguese Writrers Association (2022), the Portuguese PEN Clube Narrative Prize (2023), the Prix Médicis Etranger (2023), Fernando Namora Literary Prize (2023/2024), the Eduardo Lourenço Prize (2023), the Vergílio Ferreira Prize ((2025), the Pessoa Prize (2025), and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (2026).
PAJ/Staff
