Winner of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature
“Some critics have called Mia Couto ‘the smuggler writer,’ a sort of Robin Hood of words who steals meanings to make them available in every tongue, forcing apparently separate worlds to communicate. Within his novels, each line is like a small poem.” – Gabriella Ghermandi, Couto’s nominating juror
Mia Couto was born in 1955 in Beira, Sofala Province, Mozambique. He lived in Beira until he was seventeen, when he went to Lourenço Marques to study medicine. He interrupted his medical studies to start a journalistic career. On his own initiative, he returned to the university to study biology, and he currently works as a biologist in Mozambique. He has published more than thirty books that have been translated and edited in thirty different countries. His books cover many genres, ranging from romance to poetry, from short stories to children’s books. He has received dozens of awards in his career, including (twice) the National Prize for Literature and the Camões Prize. In 2016 he was a finalist for one of the most prestigious international awards, the Man Booker Prize. His novel Terra Sonâmbula was considered by an international jury meeting in Zimbabwe as one of the ten best African books of the twentieth century. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. With his wife, Patrícia Silva, he has three children, all of whom live and work in Maputo.
2014 Jurors and Finalists |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JURORS | FINALIST | |||
| Cristina Rivera-Garza (Mexico/US) | César Aira (Argentina) | |||
| Gabriella Ghermandi (Ethiopia/Italy) | Mia Couto (Mozambique) | |||
| Andrew Lam (Vietnam/US) | Duong Thu Huong (Vietnam/France) | |||
| Laleh Khadivi (Iran/US) | Edward P. Jones (US) | |||
| Lauren Camp (US) | Ilya Kaminsky (Ukraine/US) | |||
| Krys Lee (South Korea/US) | Chang-rae Lee (South Korea) | |||
| Ananda Devi (Mauritius) | Edouard Maunick (Mauritius) | |||
| Deji Olukotun (US/Nigeria) | Haruki Murakami (Japan) | |||
| Lorna Dee Cervantes (Mexico/US) | Cecile Pineda (US) | |||
| Fady Joudah (US/Palestine) | Ghassan Zaqtan (Palestine) | |||
