Alongside Brazil and Portugal, with 15 and 14 honorees respectively, the Camões Prize has also been awarded to three literary figures from Mozambique, two from Cape Verde, and two from Angola, in addition to the Luso-Angolan Luandino Vieira.
Ana Paula Tavares joins eight other women who have received this accolade: Brazilian authors Rachel Queiroz (1993), Lygia Fagundes Telles (2005), and Adélia Prado, the Portuguese authors Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1999), Maria Velho da Costa (2002), Agustina Bessa-Luís (2004), Hélia Correia (2015), and the Mozambican Paulina Chiziane (2021).
The Camões Prize for literature in the Portuguese language, established by the Governments of Portugal and Brazil, was first awarded in 1989 to the Portuguese writer Miguel Torga. In 2024, it honored the Brazilian Adélia Prado.
The foundational protocol, signed in Brasília on June 22, 1988, and published in November of the same year, states that the prize annually honors “a Portuguese-language author who, due to the intrinsic value of their work, has contributed to the enrichment of the literary and cultural heritage of the common language.”
In the award’s history, only one refusal has been recorded, that of Luandino Vieira in 2006.
Complete list of Camões Prize recipients:
1989 – Miguel Torga, Portugal
1990 – João Cabral de Melo Neto, Brazil
1991 – José Craveirinha, Mozambique
1992 – Vergílio Ferreira, Portugal
1993 – Rachel Queiroz, Brazil
1994 – Jorge Amado, Brazil
1995 – José Saramago, Portugal
1996 – Eduardo Lourenço, Portugal
1997 – Pepetela, Angola
1998 – António Cândido de Mello e Sousa, Brazil
1999 – Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Portugal
2000 – Autran Dourado, Brazil
2001 – Eugénio de Andrade, Portugal
2002 – Maria Velho da Costa, Portugal
2003 – Rubem Fonseca, Brazil
2004 – Agustina Bessa-Luís, Portugal
2005 – Lygia Fagundes Telles, Brazil
2006 – José Luandino Vieira, Portugal/Angola
2007 – António Lobo Antunes, Portugal
2008 – João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Brazil
2009 – Arménio Vieira, Cape Verde
2010 – Ferreira Gullar, Brazil
2011 – Manuel António Pina, Portugal
2012 – Dalton Trevisan, Brazil
2013 – Mia Couto, Mozambique
2014 – Alberto da Costa e Silva, Brazil
2015 – Hélia Correia, Portugal
2016 – Raduan Nassar, Brazil
2017 – Manuel Alegre, Portugal
2018 – Germano Almeida, Cape Verde
2019 – Chico Buarque, Brazil
2020 – Vítor Aguiar e Silva, Portugal
2021 – Paulina Chiziane, Mozambique
2022 – Silviano Santiago, Brazil
2023 – João Barrento, Portugal
2024 – Adélia Prado, Brazil
2025 – Ana Paula Tavares, Angola
