António Cândido Franco‘s “O Firmamento é Negro e Não Azul – A vida de Luiz Pacheco” was the winner of the fourth edition of the Miguel Torga Biographical Literature Grand Prize, awarded by the Portuguese Writers’ Association and Coimbra City Council.

The biography of the writer Luiz Pacheco (1925-2008) was considered to be a “highly documented reconstruction of the political, social and cultural context, especially of the literary milieu, from the transition to the Estado Novo to the recent times of democracy (1925-2008).” In addition, the jury also emphasised the “remarkable creative capacity of the biographer’s writing, due to the in-depth sketching of the unusual and marginal personality of the biographee, a paradigm of the cursed writer in contemporary Portuguese literature”.

The book was published in 2023 by Quetzal. At the time of its release, António Cândido Franco told Lusa that he wanted to “bring Luiz Pacheco’s work into the canon of Portuguese literature, as, for example, the author of a diary of unique importance”.

The prize, worth 12,500 euros, will be awarded to the IHC researcher at a ceremony to be held on 4 July, during the solemn session of Coimbra City Day. The jury was coordinated by José Manuel Mendes and consisted of Ana Margarida de Carvalho, António Pedro Pita and Cândido Oliveira Martins.