Teresa Machado wins the 2025 Ulysses Prize

The work “ Silêncio Branco ”, by Teresa Machado, won the Ulysses Literary Prize 2025, which annually distinguishes an unpublished work in the field of poetry, and guarantees its publication, announced today the publisher The Poetry and Dragons Society.

“Silêncio Branco” stands out for “its rare poetic ambition, combining a language of mystical and imagistic breath with universal themes such as death, love, the body and collective memory”, considered the award jury.

“This work transcends the confessional register, and is part of the tradition of great visionary songs, where each poem is a fragment of a reinvented world. The jury recognizes in this voice a literary force capable of broadening the horizons of contemporary poetry in the Portuguese language”, added the jury, in its statement on the decision to award the prize to the work “Silencio Branco”, by the writer Teresa Machado.

The Ulysses Prize was created in 2019 by Ulysses Magazine, founded by two Irish brothers living in Portugal.

In 2020, after the magazine closed, the award became part of the publishing house The Poets and Dragons Society, which now administers it.

Awarded annually, its aim is to stimulate and encourage poetic production and discover new talents in poetry written in the Portuguese language.

The competing works are selected by a committee that considers the “best literary merit”, in a report delivered to the jury, composed of a maximum of three elements, according to the regulations, literature experts.

The winner of this seventh edition of the Ulysses Prize was announced on Bloomsday, on June 16, at the 95th edition of the Lisbon Book Fair, in reference to James Joyce's work “Ulysses”, which gives its name to the prize, and to the day in the life of its protagonist, Leopold Bloom, which the work tells.

In 2024, the Ulysses Prize was awarded to the work “Tarantula”, by João Rasteiro.