C‘it is a deep bond that unites the rooms overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in southern Portugal, where Lídia Jorge writes and worksto the great capitals of European culture. It’s the miracle of his writing: stories born in small Portuguese villages or among the dramas of the war in Africa which, thanks to their strength, managed to overcome the borders, to be translated and to conquer the heart of the continent. Today that bond has become even closer: the extraordinary Portuguese authorseventy-nine years carried with the elegance of someone who has weathered the storms of the twentieth century, is the new winner of the Austrian State Prize for European Literature for 2026.
Lídia Jorge wins the Austrian State Prize
Since 1965, this award has touched the heart of the artistic production of an author who has been able to shake consciences on an international level. There is only one condition, almost a rite of passage: the works must also breathe in the German language. And Lídia Jorge, in Germany and Austria, has been at home for a long time. The jury of experts had no doubts: his is one of the most powerful voices, capable of transforming the criticism of colonialism, discrimination against women And poverty in pure and vibrant literature. On July 27th, in the magical and glittering setting of the Salzburg Festival, the Austrian vice-chancellor and minister of culture Andreas Babler will present her with the award.
A life between two worlds, from school classrooms to the war in Africa
But who is really the woman behind the masterpieces? To understand this we have to travel back in time, until 1946, in Boliqueime, a small village in the most authentic Algarve. Lídia Jorge is a girl who loves books; she studies French literature in Lisbon, but life has a much more intense script in store for her. In the midst of the colonial war he moved to Africaliving for years between Angola and Mozambique. There, among the contrasts of a wonderful and wounded land, her sensitivity as a woman and future writer changes forever. He will return to Portugal to be a teacher in high schools and universities, but the lure of the blank page is too strong.
Journey into the literary universe of Lídia Jorge, recently awarded the Austrian State Prize for European literature. (Getty Images)
The Carnation Revolution
In 1974 he witnessed the Carnation Revolutionthe peaceful coup that overthrew the Portuguese dictatorship with flowers stuck in the barrels of rifles. That event becomes the lifeblood of his novels. In 1979 he made his debut with O give dos prodigios (The day of wonders), and from that moment on it never stops: thirteen novels, children’s fairy tales, poems, plays. An immense production that travels the worldtranslated into English, French, Spanish and German.
The novels that changed Portugal (and Europe)
If you want to get to know it, just search the shelves A coast dos murmúrios (The coast of whispers), a painful and magnificent reflection on the colonial war seen from the eyes of womenor the recent and moving Mercy (Misericordia), written in 2022. Hers is not a writing that consoles, it is a writing that delves, which illuminates the dark corners of society, which speaks of racism and female emancipation without ever falling into the banal. And this Austrian award it is only the latest jewel in an already very rich crown.
A career that shines
In his palmarès there is, in fact, the Great romance prize and novela of the Associação portuguesa de escritores, the highest recognition for fiction from the federation of Portuguese writers, obtained in 2003, the Fil. Award of literature in Romance languages in 2020, awarded by the prestigious International Book Fair of Guadalajara, Mexico and the Pessoa Award in 2025. And just a few months ago, former president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa pinned the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Iago of the Sword.