The Alves Redol Literary Prize 2025, awarded by the Vila Franca de Xira Municipal Council in the short-story category, has honored—now in its tenth edition—the Coimbra-based writer João Rasteiro for his unpublished work As Moscas do Café Triste (The Flies of the Sad Café–a very literal translation).

Already the recipient of some of the most prestigious poetry awards in the Portuguese-speaking world—including the Manuel António Pina Literary Prize, the César Vallejo Prize, the Natália Correia Literary Prize, and, more recently, the Ulysses Prize—Rasteiro now sees his work in prose formally recognized as well. This distinction places him among the most compelling literary voices to emerge from Coimbra in the twenty-first century, confirming the breadth and depth of a body of work that moves with ease and authority between genres.

In its assessment of the winning book, the jury describes it as “a set of three relatively long short stories, with particular emphasis on the text that lends its title to the collection.” The judges underline the author’s cultural range, noting that these are narratives written by “a cultivated writer, a discerning reader of other writers, deeply familiar with the forms and devices of painting and, more broadly, with the major currents of artistic representation.”

Within this framework of notable cultural sophistication, the jury concludes, The Flies of the Sad Café demonstrates “a very strong command of literary language, as well as of the expressive resources of the Portuguese language and its figurative potential”—a work in which style, vision, and intellectual rigor converge with quiet assurance.

This recognition in prose builds upon Rasteiro’s already distinguished trajectory as a poet. In 2023, his poetry collection Sardoal was awarded the Natália Correia Literary Prize, promoted by the Municipality of Ponta Delgada to honor one of the great Portuguese writers of the twentieth century and to encourage literary creativity, reading, and the sustained practice of writing. A poet and literary programmer associated with Coimbra’s Casa da Escrita, Rasteiro has long occupied a singular position within Portugal’s contemporary literary ecosystem.

Sardoal is currently being translated into English, with publication scheduled for the fall of 2026 by Bruma Publications—a release that will introduce English-language readers to one of Portugal’s most resonant poetic voices, extending the reach of a body of work rooted in place yet unmistakably attuned to the wider human condition.