The Noble Prize
It is remarkable that a lot of great and important authors in the history of literature were never awarded the highest distinction. Passa Porta has tried to fill these gaps with a new, symbolic prize, the Noble Prize.
This is not a Nobel Prize
The previous recipients of the prize are Octavia E. Butler (2024), Virginia Wolf (2019), Marguerite Yourcenar (2017), Pier Paolo Pasolini (2016), Louis Paul Boon (2012), Hugo Claus (2009), Franz Kafka (2008) and Jorge Luis Borges (2006). It was first awarded in 2006, when Passa Porta organised a multilingual reading marathon focusing on the work of Jorge Luis Borges; an initiative of poet and translator Bart Vonck and the first of its kind.
During a bilingual evening full of speeches, master of ceremonies Eva Kamanda and her guests honoured the American writer in style.
In 2024, Passa Porta honoured American author Octavia E. Butler. Butler is best known as a science-fiction writer and one of the major figures of Afrofuturism, a cultural movement that uses speculative fiction to connect the African diaspora with technology and science.
A look back at the evening in pictures.