{"id":17682,"date":"2026-05-28T19:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/literackisopot.pl\/?post_type=people&#038;p=17682"},"modified":"2026-05-28T19:00:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:00:56","slug":"mia-couto","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/literackisopot.pl\/en\/people\/mia-couto\/","title":{"rendered":"Mia Couto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Born in Beira\/Mozambique in 1955, is among the most prominent African writers. After studying medicine and biology in Maputo, he worked as a journalist. Besides writing, he is now a biologist and teaches at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. His unique style, influenced by animist realism and the lexicon of Mozambique, has revolutionised African narrative in the Portuguese language. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 1998, Mia Couto has been a corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was awarded the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National Prize for Fiction<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1995), the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Virgilio Ferreira Prize<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (1999), the<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Cam\u00f5es Prize for Literature (<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2013) and the prestigious<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Neustadt International Prize for Literature (<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2014). He was among the six finalists of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Man Booker International Prize 2015 <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with his body of work and 2017 his novel <em>Confession of the Lioness <\/em><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was shortlisted for the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">International Dublin Literary Award<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In 2020, he won the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jan Michalski Prize for Literature<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for his trilogy <em>The sands of the emperor<\/em><\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and in 2022, he was honoured with the title of Doctor honoris causa by the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). In 2024, Couto was awarded the renowned <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FIL Prize in Romance Languages<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prize honors the author\u2019s lifetime achievement and consists of 150,000 U$. In 2025, Couto was awarded the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PEN\/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for his \u201csingular place in the landscape of both African and world literature\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">pic. Alfredo Cunha<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17681,"template":"","class_list":["post-17682","people","type-people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mia Couto | Literacki Sopot<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mia Couto - guest of the 15th edition of the Sopot by The Book Festival (Festiwal Literacki Sopot).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/literackisopot.pl\/en\/people\/mia-couto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mia Couto | Literacki Sopot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mia Couto - guest of the 15th edition of the Sopot by The Book Festival (Festiwal Literacki Sopot).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/literackisopot.pl\/en\/people\/mia-couto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Literacki Sopot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/literackisopot.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Portret-Couto-Mia-autorstwa-Alfredo-Cunha-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1668\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/literackisopot.pl\\\/en\\\/people\\\/mia-couto\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/literackisopot.pl\\\/en\\\/people\\\/mia-couto\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mia Couto | Literacki Sopot\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/literackisopot.pl\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/literackisopot.pl\\\/en\\\/people\\\/mia-couto\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/literackisopot.pl\\\/en\\\/people\\\/mia-couto\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/literackisopot.pl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/Portret-Couto-Mia-autorstwa-Alfredo-Cunha-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-28T17:00:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"Mia Couto - 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