The Inês de Castro Foundation Literary Award, which annually distinguishes literary works on the “agnesian” myth, in 2014, was granted to Luís Quintais for his poetry book “O Vidro” (Assírio & Alvim).

The jury of the award, composed by José Carlos Seabra Pereira (Chair) , Mário Cláudio, Fernando Guimarães, António Carlos Cortez and Pedro Mexia, decided to reward «one of the strongest voices of the new Portuguese poetry»,  which in the award-winning book “confronts the reader with a masterful rhythmic glow and a visit to some of the paradigmatic places in the poetry of the author. Vitrification, splinters, risks, violence and history, O Vidro alludes to Anna Calvi fragments, António Damásio, Edmond Jabès, Fernando Pessoa, Martin Amis and T.S. Eliot».

Luis Quintais, born in 1968 in Coimbra, is an anthropologist, essayist and poet, and professor at the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES). Author of eleven poetry books : A imprecisa melancolia [The imprecise melancholy] (1995), Lamento [Grievance] (1999), Umbria (1999), Verso antigo [Former Verse] (2001), Angst (2002), Duelo [Duel] (2004), Canto onde (2006), Mais espesso que a água [Thicker than water] (2008), Riscava a palavra dor no quadro negro [Scratched the word pain off the black-board] (2010), Depois da música [After the music] (2013) and O Vidro [The Glass] (2014). In addition to the Inês de Castro Foundation Award, his resume includes the Barcelona Poetry Lecture Award, the Portuguese PEN Club Prize and the Luís Miguel Nava Foundation Award.

According to information provided by the Inês de Castro Foundation,  this distinction will grant  Luís Quintais with a  silver and stone trophy, by the sculptor João Cutileiro, which symbolizes all the drama and mystery surrounding the episode of Peter and Agnes, during a ceremony on March 28, at Quinta das Lágrimas, in Coimbra, presided by the Secretary of State for Culture, Jorge Barreto Xavier.
 

Further information on the author and his work at:  https://luisquintaisweb.wordpress.com/