|
 Author
ÁLAMO OLIVEIRA –
a 2010
recipient of both Portugal's
Comendador da Ordem do Mérito
and the Azores Legislative
Assembly's
Insígnia
Autonómica de Reconhecimento
–
is one of the Azores' most acclaimed and prolific living
writers and leading cultural figures. He was born in the village of Raminho
on the island of Terceira, studied Philosophy at the Angra do Heroísmo Seminary and served in the Portuguese
army in Guinea-Bissau. Although the rest of his immediate family emigrated
to California, Álamo remained in the Azores, where he pursued a
distinguished government career in addition to being a novelist, poet,
playwright, lyricist, essayist, public speaker, painter and founder-director
of Angra do Heroísmo’s leading theater company, the
Alpendre Theater.
He is coordinator of the twice-yearly journal
andarILHAgem,
launched by the Azores' Directorate of
Communities in 2007. In October 2009
Álamo
chaired the Directorate's
international conference for writers, translators and promoters of Azorean
Literature, Escritas dispersas: convergência de afectos, at the
University of the Azores in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel. He presented "Using
theatrical expression to teach Portuguese language and culture"
(improvisation techniques for students) at APPEU&C's November 2010 forum in
Manassas, VA.
In Spring 2002 Álamo became the
first Portuguese writer-in-residence at the University of
California-Berkeley. Other honors include the Prémio de Teatro Almeida
Garrett for his play A solidão da casa do regalo and the Maré Viva
prize for the novel Até hoje (memórias de cão). He is one of
three major Azorean writers profiled in the 2005 Portuguese documentary
Aventuras do Espirito,
which includes a biographical sketch and commentaries by the author, as well
as Álamo reading from his short-story collection
Com Perfume e com Veneno.
He is listed in the Portuguese
Wikipédia.
Various
writings of Álamo's have been translated into English,
French, Spanish, Croatian, Latvian and Japanese. Copies of his novel Já não gosto
de chocolates, from which I No Longer Like Chocolates is
translated, are held in over a dozen major academic and public libraries
throughout the United States, and it has been taught in North American
university courses in
Modern Portuguese Fiction
and Portuguese Island Culture. Random House Kodansha published
Kiwamu Hamaoka's
Japanese translation of I No Longer Like Chocolates in 2008 (see cover art, below
right).
OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED BY ÁLAMO OLIVEIRA:
ANTHOLOGIES
2003
O meu coração é assim (edited by Diniz Borges, with preface)
1984 Triste Vida Leva a Garça (1967-81)
FICTION
1999 Já não gosto de chocolates
1997 Com Perfume e com Veneno
1992
Pátio d'Alfândega meia-noite
1991 Contos com desconto
1986 Até hoje (memórias de cão)
1982 Burra preta com uma lágrima
POETRY
2010 Andanças
de Pedra e Cal (4 Jun)
1998 António, porta-te como uma flor
1992 Impressões de boca
1987 Erva-azeda
1986 Textos inocentes
1983 Nem Mais Amor que Fogo, with Emanuel Jorge Botelho
1982 Itinerário das gaivotas
1980 Eu fui ao Pico piquei-me
1979 Cantar o corpo
1976 Os quinze misteriosos mistérios
1974 Fábulas
1973 Poemas de(s)amor
1971 Pão verde
1968 A vinha mão aberta
PLAYS
2009
Enquanto a roupa seca
2005 Bocas de mulheres
2004 A solidão da casa do regalo
2002 Judite--nome de guerra, Almada Negreiro (adapted)
1999 Morte que mataste lira, with Carlos Alberto Moniz
1995 Os sonhos do infante, 2nd edition
1994 Manuel, seis vezes pensei em ti, 2nd edition
1984 Missa terra lavrada
1984 Sabeis quem é este João?
1981 Uma hortênsia para Brianda
1974 Morte ou vida do poeta
1974 Um Quixote, 2nd edition
ESSAYS
1996 Olá, pobreza!
1982 Quando o mar galgou a terra (abordagem)
1978 Almeida Firmino / Poeta dos Açores |
|
 Translator
DINIZ BORGES,
Tulare County's 2007-8 High
School
Teacher of the Year, teaches Portuguese at Tulare Union HS and
at College of the Sequoias, where he directs its Institute for Azorean-American
Studies. The Praia da Vitória, Terceira, native holds a B.A. from Chapman
University and M.A. from California State University-Dominguez Hills. He writes
regularly on American topics for Portuguese-language newspapers in the
US, Canada and Portugal, edits the fine-arts section of California's Portuguese Tribune and, since 1990, has moderated a
cultural television program on KNXT-49 in Fresno. From 2004-8 Diniz was President of the
Council of Portuguese
Communities for the US, Canada
and Bermuda. He co-chaired the Luso-American
Education Foundation’s annual
conferences in Tulare
in 2006 and 2011, is Vice President of the
Tulare-Angra do Heroísmo Sister City Foundation, and
President
of the
APPEU&C [North American Portuguese Teachers Association]. He,
Katharine Baker and Dr. Bobby J. Chamberlain
are currently translating
Adelaide Freitas' novel Sorriso por dentro da noite.
OTHER BOOKS BY DINIZ BORGES:
2009
The
Portuguese Presence in California,
by
Dr. Eduardo Mayone Dias
(translated with Katharine Baker and Dr. Bobby J. Chamberlain)
2009 My Californian Friends: Poetry, by Vasco Pereira da Costa
(translated with Katharine Baker)
2005 O outro lado da saudade (collected newspaper columns, 1997-2005)
2004 Nem sempre a saudade chora - antologia de poesia açoriana sobre
emigração
2003
O meu coração é assim (anthology of works by Álamo Oliveira,
with preface)
2003 On a Leaf of Blue (bilingual anthology of contemporary Azorean
poetry)
2003 América: O outro rosto
2002 Alfred Lewis: Escritor de emoções
2000 Uma outra América: textos do real e do utópico
1996 América: o outro lado do sonho
 Translator
KATHARINE BAKER, a
second-generation native Californian with roots on the islands of Flores and
São Jorge in the Azores, earned degrees from the University of
California-Berkeley and the University of Maryland, and later studied
Portuguese at the University of Pittsburgh. Among current translating
projects, she has
completed a draft of Álamo Oliveira's
play
Bocas de mulheres [The Mouths of Women], is collaborating
on a portfolio of Azorean literature in translation for
Solo Press,
and recently began translating Álamo's
2010 poetry volume Andanças
de Pedra e Cal and Adelaide Freitas' novel of emigration,
Sorriso por dentro da noite, with Dr. Bobby J. Chamberlain and Diniz
Borges. She contributes
to
Maré Cheia (the fine-arts section of the Portuguese Tribune),
AndarILHAgem (the literary journal of
the Azores' Comunidades directorate) and on RTP's Communities
website. She created and regularly
updates this website, as well as
www.mycalifornianfriends.com.
OTHER TRANSLATIONS BY
KATHARINE BAKER:
2009
The
Portuguese Presence in California,
by
Dr. Eduardo Mayone Dias
(translated with Dr. Bobby J. Chamberlain and Diniz Borges)
2009
My Californian Friends: Poetry, by Vasco Pereira da Costa (translated with Diniz Borges)
2008 Álamo Oliveira's essay in
Capelinhos: A Volcano of Synergies, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Faial eruptions
(translated with Dr. Bobby J. Chamberlain)
2007 ILHA, by
Gabriela
Silva (poems translated with Sandy Ventura; photos
by Kristie
McLean)
Click
here to order
I No Longer Like Chocolates now.
Cover art for the Japanese
edition.
 |
