By Andrea Hargraves 
The country's most traditional literary prize has grown to focus on academic production. Starting this year, books from scientific, technical and professional fields will receive their own award called the Jaboti Academy.
“Son of Jabuti” was announced on Tuesday (30) by the Brazilian Writers' Chamber (CBL), responsible for the Jabuti Prize and important events in the country's literary market, such as the São Paulo International Book Biennale.
After 65 continuous annual cycles, the award has already witnessed some changes, for example, in its categories. But this is the first time that Jaboti has created an additional award.
The name behind the new academician Jaboti is that of physicist and former dean of Unicamp Marcelo Nobel – the author of two academic and scientific promotional books published in 2021: “A Ilusão da Lua” (Ed. contexto) and “Reflexões sobre Higher Education” (Ed. Blocher). .
As curator of the award at the invitation of the CBL, he had the task of designing the new Jabuti in just over six months. He says he had help from the Board of Trustees, the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC).
“What was happening was that a very large sector of the editorial field had little presence in Jabuti,” he says. “There have been discussions in the Central Bank of Libya for a long time to expand coverage of this sector, which is very important.”
In fact, according to a survey by the Brazilian Writers Chamber released last year, 3 of the 10 fields of the largest literary production in 2022 are academic: economics; administration; Business and public administration; Humanities and social sciences; Psychology and philosophy. All are included in the new Jabuti Academy.
Each of these areas had at least 1% of the total books produced in 2022 (to understand the numbers: more than half of the national production of works in Brazil refers to textbooks; the other part is divided into all other categories, such as religion, literature, self-help and all Academics, and in this context obtaining 1% of the total production is very important).
In New Jaboti, the first challenge was to determine the award categories. Each academic institution in Brazil divides fields of knowledge in a different way, and outside the country everything changes. The Nobel started from the 49 areas of knowledge ranked by Capes, an agency of the Ministry of Education that focuses on graduate studies in Brazil.
Since then some regions have been grouped here and there until they reached 27 categories that integrate the science and culture axis of the new Jabuti. We are talking, for example, about food science, nutrition, law, physical education, physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy.
The new Academician Jabuti also brings two prizes in another field, called Special Prizes, which are aimed at works of scientific publishing and illustration (a very important production in the academic field).
This brings the total number of new awards to 29 categories. It is more than the traditional Jabuti, which, in its last edition, in 2023, included 21 categories across four axes (literature, non-fiction, editorial production, and innovation).
In total, 87 names will participate in the selection of featured books in the new Jabuti Academic – three for each category. Defining them according to diversity criteria, for example gender and sub-fields within a large region, was more difficult than creating award categories, Noble says.
And it's not over yet: the new award will also honor the Academician of the Year – chosen by the Brazilian Writers Chamber – and for a classic book from the field of knowledge of any time. In this case, there will be a public consultation to indicate the works, which will be open from Tuesday (30) for 30 days.
Before the new Jaboti Academic Prize, scholars with academic works could compete for the traditional award by incorporating their work into the “non-fiction” axis in categories such as sciences or humanities. It is not yet known whether it will be preserved. “This is being discussed,” Nobel says. “But they are two separate awards.”
to Recordings From the new jabuti follow the traditional jabuti – which can be made by a publisher, author, literary agent or lawyer – until 6pm on March 19. Works by Brazilian authors (born, naturalized or foreigners with permanent residence in Brazil) must have their first edition published between January 1 and December 31, 2023. Prize-winning authors in each category will receive the famous statuette and R$5,000. Publishers of award-winning works also receive a statuette.
Will there be a lot of recording? “We don't know,” Noble says. “We have good prospects, but we also have a series of uncertainties.” “But we hope the award will encourage more science authors to devote themselves to producing books.”