Staying home can be an opportunity to discover new literary worlds. Here are some picks from Brazilian literature that are available in English. What are the Blind Men Dreaming by Noemi Jaffe. Noemi Jaffe "Three generations of women reflect, in their own words, on the Holocaust and bearing witness in Jewish and Brazilian identity. In … Continue reading #StayHome with Brazilian Literature
By Dr. Cimara Valim de Melo In the course of the first two decades of the 21st century, a number of questions have been raised on how to promote Brazilian literature in a globalized – but still greatly hegemonic – system. So-called world literature still remains a territory for Anglophone societies, mostly accessed by English … Continue reading Brazilian Literature Worldwide: The Role of the Translator
By Basak Bingol Yuce “She is proof that reality can inflict a pain unknown in fiction.” This is how Eliane Brum describes Enilda, one of the women whose story interweaves with many other “living mothers of a dead generation," the title of one of Brum's stories. It also explains my response to Brum's brilliant book, … Continue reading Feeling the Pulse of Brazil with Eliane Brum
By Leonardo Tonus The Brazilian Literary Spring (Printemps Littéraire Brésilien) is an annual festival that aims to promote the study of Portuguese-language literature and humanities in institutions located beyond the borders of “Lusofonia.” The idea was born in 2014, in the Brazilian literature classes that I teach at the Sorbonne, in Paris. In a way, … Continue reading Brazilian Literary Spring
By Noemi Jaffe Speaking Portuguese is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing for the beauty of the language, for the literature it has produced and for the cultures it represents, in Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Cabo Verde, Goa, and Macau. But a curse because -- and I can say that with certainty -- … Continue reading Guimarães Rosa: The Writer of Love and Transcendence
By Dr. Eliseo Jacob In 2018, a relatively unknown writer from the working-class community of morro do Vidigal, a favela in Rio de Janeiro's south zone, took the literary world by storm. Only 26 years old at the time, Geovani Martins published his first book, a collection of short stories titled O sol na cabeça … Continue reading Geovani Martins: New Literary Voice from the Favela
(Photo by Eduardo Sterzi) "My novella is a description of the world insofar as every trip — when taking the people out of their comfortable and safe positions — provides a renewed contact with things, with the world. To describe is, in this sense, to discover, to transform in words what one discovers, i. e., … Continue reading Interview with Veronica Stigger
By Hugo Almeida Osman Lins, one of the greatest Brazilian writers of the 20th century, has his three main books translated in the United States: Avalovara (University of Texas Press), translated by Gregory Rabassa; Nine, novena (Sun & Moon Press) and The Queen of the Prisons of Greece (Dalkey Archive Press), both translated by Adria … Continue reading Osman Lins, neat and amazing
(Image: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa) BY ARY QUINTELLA Many years ago, on an autumn day, my sister was introduced to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Titina — she's always been known by her nickname — had just turned eighteen. The Prince is renowned for his infelicitous remarks. For some reason, my parents' divorce, … Continue reading Capitu, The Girl from Ipanema
By Dr. Lorena Sales dos Santos My first contact with the work of Lygia Fagundes Telles was during my early years of college, during a summer vacation. My mother, who was an avid reader and had recently started to write some short stories, was reading Telles’s book Antes do Baile Verde (Before the Green Ball … Continue reading Lygia Fagundes Telles, Master of the Human and the Fantastic
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 