Vila Nova de Famalicão City Council is honouring the best literary works written in Portuguese with the recently established Camilo Castelo Branco Literary Prize.
The biennial competition, launched in the year in which the municipality is celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of the novelist from Seide, also aims to promote the creation of Portuguese works and is open to writers from any country in the Lusophone world.
The Camilo Castelo Branco Literary Prize will honour one work per edition and the winner will receive a prize of 7,500 euros. Interested authors can submit a work published in the two calendar years prior to the prize. The texts can be in the forms of poetry, novel, novella, short story and theatre.
To take part in the first edition of the initiative, writers must send four copies of their work to the Camilo House-Museum by post by 16 March 2025. While three copies will be distributed to the members of the jury, the fourth copy will become part of the bibliographic collection of the Centre for Camillian Studies, located in the União das Freguesias de Seide.
The jury will be made up of the scientific coordinator of the Casa-Museu de Camilo, Sérgio Guimarães de Sousa, and two literary critics yet to be defined. The winning work will be announced no later than six months after the deadline for receipt of entries, i.e. by September.
Only works by authors over the age of 18 will be entered into the competition.
The Vila Nova de Famalicão City Council is marking the bicentenary of Camilo Castelo Branco's birth until 16 March 2025 to ensure that the novelist's work endures and to pass on his legacy to young people.