selecione o livro adotado:
WOOK AWARD
NEW AUTHORS
Created by the country's largest online bookstore, the Wook New Authors Award aims to give
a prominent place to new authors, through the dissemination of works that illustrate
the diversity, creativity and quality of literary production in the Portuguese language.
Consult regulation.
✓ January 7, 2026
Announcement of the six finalists
✓ January 29, 2026
Announcement
of the
winner
of the 2nd edition
President of the Jury
Rui
Couceiro
WINNER
WOOK'25 AWARD
NEW AUTHORS
Sara Duarte Brandão
Sara Duarte Brandão (Porto, 1997) holds a degree in Communication Design, a Master's degree in Literary, Cultural and Interart Studies, and is a doctoral candidate in Educational Sciences. She co-founded Truz Truz Editora and is involved in projects that cross various artistic areas. Her novel Who's Afraid of the Saints of the House? He was awarded the City of Almada Literary Prize.
"In truth, everything I write and everything I erase is a step taken. To where I don't know, but it doesn't really matter."
READ INTERVIEW
Who's Afraid of the Saints of the House
Maria Teresa grew up in a fishing village between family austerity and the freedom found in books. Condemned to live in the shadow of what her father and husband dreamed for her, she sets out in search of emancipation. Today, weaving carpets, she is considered a witch who frightens children, but it is in an unlikely friendship with Joana that she will find her redemption. A novel inspired by the history of the saints by sculptor Altino Maia, removed from the Church of São Pedro da Afurada.
SEE MORE
Jury Note
"The Jury of the 2nd Edition of the Wook New Authors Award, chaired by writer Rui Couceiro, unanimously decided to award the prize to the author." Sara Duarte
Brandão through the novel Who's Afraid of the Saints of the House?
Focusing on the story of a woman, Maria Teresa, and a community in a small fishing village, *Quem Tem Medo dos Santos da Casa* (Who's Afraid of the House Saints) is a work that skillfully intertwines the intimate and the collective. The narrative structure avoids convention, and the use of language reveals a poetic sensibility that illuminates everyday life. Sara Duarte Brandão revisits and transfigures the commonplaces of language, attributing new meanings to them, with a dexterity that reveals an uncommon literary talent.
DISCOVER
THE FINALISTS
Ana da Cunha
Sodade
Ana da Cunha (Porto, 1996) holds a degree in Theatre-Acting,
a postgraduate degree in Dramaturgy and Screenwriting, and a master's degree in Journalism. In 2016,
she won the Aldônio Gomes Award with her work (Out of) Control and, in
2025, the
Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho Award with the work Sodade.
She is a journalist at
Message from Lisbon.
"Fidj, what happened to Carlitos?" These are the last words of the mother
of Zé, a notary in his forties, married and father of two children, with Cape Verdean roots. This question, which will become an obsession, will lead him to confront the past and revisit an old building, a lazaretto that was once home to more than two hundred families from Cape Verde: the 28th of May Asylum. A novel about the transformative power of books and friendship.
"The best part of it all is being able to create a reality, a little corner that's just ours. A place where we dictate the rules, even though the characters also end up plotting against us."
READ INTERVIEW
Ana Cláudia Santos
Ana's Crafts
Ana Cláudia Santos (Lisbon, 1984) holds a PhD in Literary Theory from the University of Lisbon. She worked at the University of Lisbon Press and taught Portuguese at the University of Pisa. She has translated, among others, Italo Svevo and Natalia Ginzburg. In 2022, she published... The Walrus – Tales of Innocence and Violence.
Labors
by Ana It is her first long narrative and tells the story of Ana, a woman between two cities, Naples and Lisbon. A book that portrays the end of youth and the beginning of adulthood and that reflects, through travels and different times, on the condition of being a woman and of being free.
"I like to read about everything; I write about what I can, what I am able to, what I want to, and what troubles me."
READ INTERVIEW
Dulce de Souza Gonçalves
The Process
Dulce de Souza Gonçalves (Lisbon, 1973) holds a doctorate in Psychology of Education and a Master's degree in Portuguese Literature and Culture.
A primary and secondary school teacher, she founded the non-profit association. Smiling MindsShe is the author of several works of children's and young adult literature. She received the Agustina Bessa-Luís Literary Revelation Award for her novel. The Process.
Starting with the enigmatic request of an uncle, a former political prisoner of the Salazar regime, a woman delves into the archives of the Torre do Tombo.
Beyond the record of an imprisonment, she finds the echo of a silenced story, made of courage and betrayal, and of a love that transcends borders. A novel that intertwines memory, resistance, and love, crossing geographies and generations.
"We must always recognize that we do not write alone and that we reach our destination because we have someone to light our way."
READ INTERVIEW
Josefa de Maltezinho
Elisa
Josefa de Maltezinho (Porto, 1956), pseudonym of Julieta Aleluia,
dedicated a large part of her life to teaching as a primary school teacher, having trained at the University of Aveiro. In 2013 she published her first book of poetry, Running Water, followed, in
2016,
in her debut as a novelist, the work Apple
With Worm.
Elisa
It is a narrative that follows the life of the protagonist
throughout the Estado Novo period, ending after the
April 25th Revolution. A portrait of the society of the time and of a
family, but above all, of a woman who will write her own
story.
“[Writing] is an act of continuity, more than of discipline.”
READ INTERVIEW
Nuno Duarte
Feet of Clay
Nuno Duarte (Sintra, 1973) studied graphic design at Ar.Co and began a career in advertising where he was creative director of some of the leading agencies in the market and earned several national and international awards. Feet
of Clay It's his first novel.
It's 1962 and the construction of the first suspension bridge over the Tagus River is underway. The project will forever change the landscape of the capital. Through the eyes of Victor Tirapicos, a twenty-two-year-old locksmith, we will see the bridge rise while, right next to it, ships full of boys depart for the Overseas War. A powerful and symbolic portrait of the end of a regime, a story of hardship and hope.