In October three students and three faculty members made a journey to the University of Oklahoma for a unique literary experience. Thanks to a generous gift by Kathy Neustadt, mother of Tess Hankin, class of 2016, Upper School students are chosen annually by the English Department to accompany faculty from the English department to the Neustadt Festival, banquet, and award ceremony, held on the OU campus.

 

The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and World Literature Today, an incredible quarterly journal that has published most of the major international writers of the past century, and the prize is endowed in perpetuity by a gift from the Neustadt family. Students are selected based on their submissions of creative work in the style of the author being honored.

 

This year’s honoree was Mozambique’s magical realist short story writer and novelist Mia Couto. It is surprising to many when they hear both the name and country of origin that this Neustadt Award winner is actually a man, and he is of European descent; his parents were Portuguese immigrants to Mozambique in the 1950s. He writes in Portuguese and his work has been translated into dozens of languages. (His English translator, David Brookshaw, a fascinating man in his own right, also attended the Neustadt festivities and was given much credit for helping to bring Couto’s work to the English-speaking world.)

 

Couto’s fiction is quintessentially African in both its reliance on folk culture and customs, his descriptions of and reverence for the natural world, and in his choice of magic realism as his most common form of literary expression. Mr. Couto’s poetry and prose speaks powerfully of his and his fellow Mozambicans’ experiences, especially in the wake of the country’s struggle for independence in 1975 and then its long civil war (1977-1992). But universal messages abound as well, both in his literature and in his public speaking and essays. As the Neustadt Prize program noted, “his work is a message to his native land . . . yet he also addresses the whole world, seeking to resonate with each and every individual.”

 

Senior Andrew MacPhail, one of the three students who attended the ceremony, noted that “the part of the experience that really stood out to me was the opportunity to interact with Mr. Couto one-on-one. Every answer Mr. Couto gave to a question possessed a quiet, energetic, profundity. Often, we found ourselves huddling around him, craning our necks to catch each sentence, hoping to acquire some neatly packaged pearl of literary wisdom.”

 

Indeed, we were all affected by Mr. Couto’s quiet, gracious manner and his resounding optimism despite the many challenges his country has faced. Sophomore Grace Dorgan, whose contest submission story “The Village for Children” brilliantly captured the style and tone of magic realism, noted that she was grateful for this unique opportunity and, along with fellow sophomore Trinity Goderstad, believed it would inspire her to write more in the future.

 

Interacting with people like Mia Couto who have been able to achieve success and personal satisfaction in various walks of life helps provide positive role models for our students.

 

Already this year they have been exposed to NPR journalist Michele Norris, Iraqi war veteran and activist Eric Alva, documentary filmmakers, writer and human rights activist Deji Olukotun, with many others still to come, including civil rights attorney Morris Dees and prize-winning author Nina McConaghey in December. This lineup of notables allows students to see the possibilities before them; we hope that every student can lead a fulfilling life in which, as our mission states, they will become lifelong learners.