This week on our Poetry News round up, we take a look at the 500th anniversary celebration of the poet Luís de Camões and the winner of the Victorian Premiers’ Literary Award.
Portugal Celebrates a Global Poet in Kazakhstan
The 500th anniversary of the birth of the poet Luís de Camõeshas been marked with an exhibition. The exhibition was opened by the Ambassador of Portugal to Kazakhstan, José Ataíde Amaral, who made a speech highlighting the global relevance of the greatest poet from Portugal. He also compared the poet to other important literary figures of the 16th century, including William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes.
Whilst the exact year of the poet’s birth is not quite certain, historians believe that it was around 1524 or 1525 in Lisbon. His death, which occurred on 10th June 1580, is well documented and now celebrated as Portugal’s National Day.
The exhibition is centred around the poet epic masterpiece “Os Lusíadas”. The sweeping poem was inspired by Vasco da Gama’a voyage to India. It draws on the Roman name Lusitania, which is the region known as modern Portugal. The poem ultimately reflects on the place of Portugal in the world and the country’s past.
Camões was known as more than a poet of exploration. He was a Renaissance figure whose life was shaped by many classical influences. His poetry style was lyric, and he favoured sonnets and theatrical comedies. Whilst his poetry is still admired all over the world, there is only one collection that was directly translated from Portuguese into Kazakh and a copy of this was put on display at the entrance of the exhibition.
Camões travelled all over the world, spending almost two decades abroad, and his travels served as a major inspiration for his writing. Whilst his writing may be to many complex, the Ambassador suggested to Kazakh readers that a good place to start was with Camões sonnets on love, before attempting Os Lusíadas which is considered to be very demanding.
Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards
The poet Evelyn Araluen has won $125,000 in this year’s Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. Her winning second collection “The Rot”, was awarded the $100,00 Victorian prize for literature and also the $25,000 prize for the Indigenous writing category.
A total of 700 books were entered this year for the prize, and Araluen’s collection was also shortlisted in the poetry category. The Koori and Goorie poet was the winner of the 2022 Stella prize and her debut collection “Dropbear” was also shortlisted for three premier’s literary awards.
The poet, who was interviewed after she had won the $25,000 Indigenous category prize said that she was “excited” but that she didn’t think she had any chance of winning the top prize.
The Rot, was described by the panel of judges as
The collection was written over the course of just a few months last year and was inspired by the poets 2024 Adelaide writers’ week experience reading two poems when she was heckled for references she made to Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza as a genocide whilst on stage.
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