The writers will be introduced by Teresa Fastudo of the Camões Institute
ALMEIDA FARIA was born in Montemor-o-Novo (south of Portugal) in 1943. A fiction writer, playwright, and essayist, he is a lecturer in Aesthetics at the New University of Lisbon. The recipient of many prizes, he published his first novel Rumor Branco (White Noise) in 1962 at the age of 19. His other novels include A Paixão (The Passion, 1965), the first part of a tetralogy set in the period before, during and after the 25th of April Revolution which put an end to dictatorship. His O Conquistador (The Conqueror, 1990) is an ironic and erotic parody which “weaves a devilish black comedy of subtle double entendres on philosophical, linguistic and ideological levels. Almeida Faria ́s grand novel will surely provoke a scandal.” (World Literature Today, USA). And Books Abroad, USA, wrote that “there exists in Almeida Faria something like a sacred pact with everything touched by his pen.” His books are translated in many languages, including Spanish, Franch, Italian, Dutch, German, Greek, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian and Bulgarian.
HÉLIA CORREIA was born near Lisbon, "in the village which inspired Saramago's book about the convent building". She grew up under Salazar's dictatorship during which her father, an anti- fascist fighter, was imprisoned. Her mother's family were country people "very close to religion and popular traditions". In Lisbon, she received a degree in Romanic Philology studies and became a teacher. At the age of eighteen she started writing in literary newspapers and poetic anthologies and, a short time later, published her first novel. As well as writing fiction, she has also produced
a number of collections of poetry, including A Pequena Morte/Esse Eterno Canto (1986) and Apodera-te de Mim (2002). Her latest novel, Lillias Fraser (2002) is about a Scottish child who goes to Lisbon after the Culloden disaster and witnesses the major earthquake of 1755. Hélia Correia also writes for theatre and children books based on the classical Greek civilization.