(Rio de Janeiro, 1941) Writer and former Chair of the Brazilian Academy of Literature (2011-2013). Considered by critics to be one of the most complete and versatile of Brazilian writers, she has published ten novels, eleven non-fiction books and more than a hundred children’s books, published, in translation, in twenty different countries. Her work is both very popular (she has sold more than 20 million books) and critically well-received, as demonstrated by the more than 40 literary awards she has won. These include the 2000 Hans Christian Andersen Award (IBBY), the Casa de las Americas Prize (Cuba), the Lifetime Achievement Award (USA), the Prince Claus Award (Netherlands) and in Brazil, the highest literary prize, the Machado de Assis, given for her body of work, and the Jabuti Prize three times. She did her post-graduate thesis under Roland Barthes and later gave classes at the Sorbonne, Berkeley, Oxford and the University of Rio de Janeiro. Her work has been translated into numerous languages and been studied in many countries. Many of her works are available in English.
Photo: © B. Veiga