It was a stirring night at Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado, in Salvador, Bahia. Winners of Braskem Cultura e Arte (Braskem Culture and Art) Award - Literature category Herculano Neto, Márcia Tude and Victor Mascarenhas received guests and the press for the launching of their respective awarded books.

After a strict selection fro among the 71 enrolled projects at the 2007 issue of the Award, the respective titles - Cinema, Calendário and Cafeína - were published by Casa de Palavras label, from Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado, a partner in the Literature category.  Each one of the three books got a one thousand copy edition.

Braskem Culture and Art Award is the only one focused on unpublished cultural production in Bahia and in consequently advertising new artistic talents from the State in the fields of Music, the Fine Arts, Cinema and Literature. In this latter category alone, over 30 novel, poetry and short story writers have had their unpublished works launched.

Works are selected every year by an expert technical committee, and the winners are awarded by Braskem with the production of their projects. Every issue of the Award two new CDs two fine arts exhibits, three books and a short film are sponsored.


LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 2007 AWARDEES

Cinema (Poetry)
"The book has got that name because my poetry is very much loaded with imagery and characters. Since I'm also a fiction writer, both my prose and poetry enter into one another," reveals Herculano Neto, author of the book Cinema. Besides directors such as Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Hitchcock, Scorsese and Woody Allen, that have influenced him more than may poets, he admires Manuel Bandeira, Caio Fernando Abreu, Fabrício Carpinejar and Ana Cristina Cesar, not to mention the importance of music in his life, which goes from Nelson Cavaquinho to The Smiths English rock.

The book is divided into three parts: the first one, called FILMOGRAFIA (FILMOGRAPHY) shots the poet today, lost amidst the big city; the second, CURTA-METRAGEM (SHORT FILM), is a kind of romantic comedy, full of comings and goings; and the third and last one, MATINÊS (AFTERNOON PERFORMANCE), are the poet's eye on childhood until we go back to what was presented at the beginning of the book. At the work's foreword, another writer, Manuel Carneiro, sums it all up: "Herculano Neto treasures childhood as a chestful of precious and inexhaustible inventories, and filmography progresses page by page, brining up memories and yearnings for afternoon performances forgotten in a corner of the theater inside an empty popcorn bag. Allusions to bitter memories break up from this poet's verses."

The author
Herculano Neto was born in Santo Amaro da Purificação (BA). He is a writer of poetry, fiction and popular music lyrics. He took part in Os Outros Poemas de Que Falei (Banco Capital de Literatura Award, 2004) and Sob Prescrição (Laetitia Editore, 2006) anthologies. In 2007, he retold Transa CD, from Caetano Veloso (http://mojobooks.com.br), and had his texts published by Cult Magazine. He has songs recorded by artists such as Raimundo Fagner, Alcione and Roberto Mendes. Cineclub owner, screenwriter of unfinished movies, public employee and grandson from Herculano, a mere story teller. That is how he describes himself. Now he may enter "Cinema" in this résumé, published by Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado through Braskem de Cultura e Arte Award, a "book that has a very large load of imagery that reminds him of his life from childhood to the current day, but has nothing to do with cinema proper," as he pointed out. One of the three winners, Herculano believes this award is another stimulus. "I understand awards such as the ones sponsored by Braskem are vital for artists, especially for Bahia scenario literature, with meager possibilities," he says.

Cafeína (Caffeine - short stories)
Victor Mascarenhas' debut book, Cafeína (Caffeine) - whose cover carries an illustration by Cau Gomez and has a foreword by Fausto Fawcett - is a collection of twelve short stories where there are no heroes or damsels, much less room for myth-making. Characters are taxi drivers, janitors, waiters, retired people, prostitutes and common people in general.

"Cafeína's twelve short stories ’ are a dantesque walk through small lives that move in mental, social and sentimental immobility circles. People whose hearts have changed into time bombs liable to blow up for any reason," that is what Fausto Fawcett says in his foreword. "Victor knows every well how to capture the dark side full of strange life of Salvador city's inhabitants, he knows quite well how to touch the vibe of the town as a big city in a still-underdeveloped country, a big city that is still an urban conglomerate full of tension and barbaric immediacy. Victor knows very well how to pour salt on the wound of empty lives," says Fawcett.

According to Victor Mascarenhas, the title "Cafeína" (Caffeine) - also the name of one of the short stories - is much more a concept for the whole project, which is also on the internet, where there are two movie scripts and one theater pay available, both adapted from short stories in the book. "The idea is for the book not to get shut into itself. I wish it to move out to other media, that someone should shot this or some other script based on it, that they should put up a play with this or some other text adapted from my stories. What matters is that the work remains alive and gets to as many people as possible. And I believe that Braskem Cultura e Arte Award came to ad a lot to may work."

The author
Victor Mascarenhas was born in Bahia; he is 34 and a Communications graduate with a post-graduation in TV and Video Scripts. An advertising professional, teacher and screenwriter, he works in several areas connected to communication. In movies, he was one of the feature film "Esses Moços" (2004), worked as assistant director in "3 histórias da Bahia" (2001) and was a producer for Rádio Gogó (1999) cast. He wrote and directed the short movie Pop Killer (1998) and clips for bands such as Brincando de Deus and Maria Bacana. As advertising editor, he won several awards and worked in political campaigns. There is more information on the author, the book and a room for comments at the book blog (www.livrocafeina.blogspot.com).

Calendário (Calendar - poetry)
"The poem book is the fruit of a literary creation workshop two years ago directed by Ildásio Tavares, my master and friend. I've decided to give this title to the book to reassert the preeminence of starts over human nature for, since pre-history, man is enchanted by sunsets and sunrises, by the starts and by the spectacle of the phases of the Moon - references for counting time," explains the author Márcia Tude. "Calendário" is structured based in her experiences during the months in which every poem was written, revealing phases more inclined to free verse, others more directed to fixed forms. That is why there is an incursion to short verses, sonnets, hexasyllables and decasyllables. "It is always a matter of phase and how I feel at each one of them," she sums up.

The author
Márcia Tude was born in Salvador in 1972. She is a poet and currently runs Livro.com publishing house. She won first place in 1989 at the Writing Contest sponsored by Gabinete Português de Leitura para Estudos Universitários (Portuguese Cabinet of Reading for University Studies), from Portugal. "Study at Porto expanded my literary perception a lot. That's when I had the chance of learning about the works from Adília Lopes, Casimiro de Brito, Miguel Torga, Sophia de Mello Brayner and others, who had much influence over what I write today."