The Italian Ambassador to Portugal, Carlo Formosa, has announced that the Rome-Lisbon Prize has been awarded to Portuguese author António Mega Ferreira. The prestigious award will be presented at a ceremony, held as part of the celebrations to mark the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, on Friday 24 September 2021, at 18:30 at the Italian Embassy in Lisbon.
“António Mega Ferreira is a high-level and important personality in the cultural panorama of contemporary Portugal, Ambassador Formosa and the President of the Prize, Giorgio Milesi, emphasise in the motivations for this choice, and emblematically represents the great attention that Portuguese artists and intellectuals have always paid to Italian culture, absorbing its charm and inspiration. His refined literary production, characterised by a profound knowledge of and familiarity with the artistic universe of Italy, constitutes an authoritative voice and a natural beacon to look to, for those who dedicate themselves to the study and dissemination of our culture in Portugal. The author of numerous works inspired by the passion for the great Italian art – the Ambassador noted – he has composed masterly pages that have contributed to increasing the interest of the Portuguese public in the great masterpieces written and conceived in the language of Dante”.
During the award ceremony, António Mega Ferreira will deliver a lectio magistralis entitled “Dante in exile: a boat without sail or rudder”.
The Rome-Lisbon Prize, created in 2000, is a literary award aimed at promoting the image, culture and values of Italy. It is open to authors of all nationalities, but with works published in Italian and judged by a jury composed of personalities from the worlds of culture, academia and journalism. Since 2004, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Prize has forged symbolic links with the most important cities in the world, through the presentation of the initiative at our Embassies and Cultural Institutes and the awarding of a special prize to authors from the host countries. Among the personalities who have received this prize are Nobel Prize winners Carlo Rubbia and Rita Levi Montalcini, Greek actress Irene Papas, American astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, Oscar winner Roberto Benigni, Andrea Riccardi founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio and, in memoriam, Pope John Paul II after he accepted the award before he passed away. The Portuguese writer was due to receive the award in 2020, but the ceremony was then postponed until 2021 due to the pandemic.
António Mega Ferreira, born in Lisbon in 1949, is the author of a vast literary oeuvre that includes fiction, non-fiction, poetry and current events. A writer, journalist, intellectual and cultural operator, he has collaborated with the main Portuguese newspapers and broadcasters and has directed prestigious local cultural institutions, such as the Belém Cultural Centre and the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. A profound connoisseur and disseminator of Italian culture, he is the author of numerous books on the art and literature of the “Beautiful Country “, including Roma, Exercícios de Reconhecimento (2003), Cartas de Casanova (2013), Itália, Práticas de Viagem (2017), and O Essencial sobre Dante Alighieri (2017). He has been called by the Imprensa Nacional state publisher to direct the ITÁLICA series, dedicated to the most important Italian writers of all time, including Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Giuseppe Ungaretti.
An invitation is required to attend the ceremony.
