Writer, screenwriter and journalist Eliana Alves Cruz, presenter of the Trilha de Letras program, an attraction on TV Brasil, won the Guimarães Rosa Prize, awarded by the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) for the Best Fiction Book of the year 2025. The author was recognized for her work Meridiana, a novel that follows the upward trajectory of a black family and exposes conflicts, affections and inequalities present in Brazilian society. The announcement was made on Friday (12). In 2022, the writer won the Jabuti award with A Vestida: Contos. Related news: Regional editions of O Pasquim in SP and RS gain digital collection. Rádio Nacional premieres a 90-episode documentary about the 90th anniversary. Show in SP celebrates indigenous art and way of learning. “The commission considered the book an odyssey, or anti-odyssey, of a black family, a novel of great emotional intensity, in a very well-woven plot, which divides poles by setting in motion the conflicts arising from a move from the favela to a middle-class condominium”, says the ABL statement. "It is, therefore, a story of search for insertion that exposes a complex social situation with its daily adversities that raise new questions from an already centuries-old repertoire, but which closes with a nod to the good news that the future will have to tell. For all its literary merits, Meridiana, by Eliana Alves Cruz, is the book worthy of ABL's Highlight in Fiction, this 2026", adds the Association. Eliana Alves Cruz received the news with surprise and emotion. "Very beautiful and very surprising. It is a very great honor. The ABL is a national reference, a reference in the culture of our country. Great Brazilian intellectuals are there and have been. So, it is really very important to have a work like Meridiana in this place of award", he celebrates. The author also highlighted the importance of recognition for validating a literary work that required great narrative elaboration. “Although the book is relatively short, building six first-person voices, six voices from the same family, giving each one its particularity, its personality and its identity, was really a very difficult architecture”, he says. For Eliana, the repercussion of Meridiana can also inspire new generations of writers. "Write what you want, in the way that makes sense to you. Don't look so much at opinions and market trends. We look to keep up to date, but, deep down, we have to sit down, look at the text honestly and write what touches the heart. Because, by touching the heart of those who write, different people and those with other belongings can also feel touched by their story", he states. The CEO of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), Antonia Pellegrino, celebrates the achievement and states that the award given to Eliana Alves Cruz recognizes a work marked by memory, identity and courage to narrate Brazil based on stories that are often silenced. "For EBC, it is a source of pride to have on TV Brasil an intellectual and writer of Eliana's stature. At the head of Trilha de Letras, she transforms literature into a space for listening, thinking and meeting, bringing the public closer to authors, ideas and debates that are fundamental to the country's cultural life", highlights Pellegrino. About Eliana Alves Cruz Eliana Alves Cruz is a journalist, writer and screenwriter, recognized as one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Brazilian literature. His award-winning works in Brazil and abroad explore the roots of Afro-Brazilian ancestry, articulating fiction, memory and history with sensitivity and rigor. His most recent novel, Meridiana (Companhia das Letras, 2025), takes a deeper look at the process of social ascension of a black family over three generations. In six voices, the author reveals the dilemmas, achievements and memories that shape contemporary Brazil. Winner of the Jabuti Award 2022, with A Vestida, Eliana was nominated for the International Emmy Awards 2024 for her work as a screenwriter in the series Anderson Spider Silva. Among his main literary works are: Água de Barrela (Oliveira Silveira Award and Honorable Mention in the Thomas Skidmore Award – Brown University), O Crime do Cais do Valongo (semi-finalist for the Oceanos Award), Nada Digo de Ti, Que em Ti Não Veja (Raquel de Queiroz Award – UBE) and Solitária (Companhia das Letras). She is also the author of children's books, such as A Copa Frondosa da Árvore, O Drawing of the World and Geniuses of Our People, and presents the program Trilha de Letras, the only one on open television entirely dedicated to literature. In June 2025, he released Milena and the Enigma of the Ancient Bird, in partnership with Mauricio de Sousa, combining his sensitive prose with the creativity of the renowned comic book artist. In audiovisual, she works as head of the room for the series Capoeiras (Disney Star+), content creator for the project Narrativas Negras (Paramount), researcher for Globo and Fox and a member of scripts for internationally renowned productions. Carioca and postgraduate in Business Communication, Eliana Alves Cruz is an author committed to reconstructing Afro-Brazilian stories, told by those who descend from them.