JAKARTA, INDONESIA — BRICS Literature Award 2025 Shortlist Announced: Brazil’s Ana Maria Gonçalves Among Global Finalists— The BRICS Literature Award 2025 shortlist was officially unveiled in a grand event at the H.B. Jassin Literary Documentation Center in Jakarta, marking a major milestone in cultural cooperation among BRICS nations.
The announcement ceremony featured prominent figures including Dr. Ganjar Harimansyah (Secretary of Indonesia’s Agency for Language Development and Cultivation), Muhammad Shadiq Pasadique (Member of Indonesia’s House of Representatives), Nikita Shilikov (Director of the Russian House in Indonesia), and Vadim Teryokhin (Russian poet and Co-Chairman of the BRICS Literature Network). Doha Mustafa Assi, Egyptian writer and Member of Parliament, joined the event virtually.
Opening the ceremony, Sastri Bakry, National Coordinator of the BRICS Literature Network in Indonesia, said:
“This award not only recognizes outstanding literary works from BRICS nations but also strengthens cultural exchange and understanding. For Indonesia, it’s a bridge connecting our literary heritage to the global stage.”
🏆 About the Award
The BRICS Literature Award was founded in November 2024 during the first BRICS “Traditional Values” Forum in Moscow. The prize honors contemporary authors whose works reflect the cultural and spiritual values of BRICS nations, promoting translation, publishing, and literary dialogue across member countries.
The award process spans three stages:
- Longlist — announced in Brasília
- Shortlist — unveiled in Jakarta
- Winner — to be announced on November 27, 2025, in Khabarovsk, Russia
✒️ 2025 Shortlist — 10 Authors Representing BRICS & Partner Nations
- Brazil: Ana Maria Gonçalves
- Russia: Alexey Varlamov
- India: Sonu Saini
- China: Ma Boyong
- South Africa: Nthabiseng JahRose Jafta
- United Arab Emirates: Reem Al Kamali
- Ethiopia: Abere Adamu
- Iran: Mansour Alimoradi
- Indonesia: Denny JA
- Egypt: Salwa Bakr
Announcing the list, Vadim Teryokhin emphasized the award’s global literary impact:
“The BRICS Award allows writers to understand their place in world literature and share their nations’ unique stories. It builds bridges of empathy and mutual understanding between our peoples.”
Teryokhin also called for stronger translation and publication networks, urging BRICS countries to hold joint festivals, seminars, and youth literary programs to strengthen cultural bonds.
🌍 Denny JA: “BRICS Literature Offers a New Compass for the World”
Representing Indonesia, acclaimed writer Denny JA described the award as an emerging global literary force on par with the Nobel Prize in Literature:
“The BRICS Literature Award is not here to dethrone the Nobel, but to complement it. It offers a new compass for world literature — more diverse, humane, and just.”
He hailed BRICS+ nations as the “spiritual heart of the Global South”, uniting half of the world’s population and giving voice to those long unheard:
“BRICS literature speaks for the colonized, the migrant, the indigenous, the woman at the margins. The South is not a subject to be studied — it is a chorus to be heard.”
In a stirring conclusion, Denny JA highlighted literature as the “gentlest form of diplomacy”:
“If the G7 speaks through policy, BRICS can speak through poetry. Literature is not propaganda — it is revelation. It reminds us that imagination, too, is a form of justice. When empires fall, what remains are stories — and through them, we remember who we are and who we dare to become.”
📖 The BRICS Literature Award continues to grow as a platform for cultural unity and literary diplomacy — celebrating voices from across the Global South and beyond.
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