The poetry of Ângela de Almeida was our first book of poetry translated to English by Bruma Publications from PBBI-Fresno State. It was a joint venture with Nona Poesia and Letras Lavadas in Ponta Delgada. The book will be featured here in California, at PBBI-Fresno State –  during October and at other venues and events. We are happy to include the translated introduction written by journalist and poet Fernando Dacosta here in this segment dedicated to this new book.

Remarkable for her subtlety, Ângela de Almeida advances in the Portuguese literary world by unveiling herself to better conceal herself through an unequaled aesthetic, ethic, and poetics.

Endowed with unusual resources that her intelligence and experience highlight, she creates her own spaces for herself and her work, achieving an uncommon affirmation of writing and imagery.

Her latest book, Calligraphy of the Birds, contains some of the best poems that have recently appeared among us.

Going through it, we find singular illuminations, as in the Cycle of Hours, where a remarkable poem becomes a cantata of infinite perturbation.

“A woman hugging a window goes by/ and a man with the roof on his shoulders/ a circus without a clown goes by/ as does a wheel/ the last carriage of a / hallucinated train goes by (…)”

Ângela de Almeida knows how to find paths, assert herself as different, solidary, and sensitive, and has persistence, availability, and maps without retreat.

One knows that nobody comes out of nothing. We cannot forget that poetry is, together with the chronicle, the great pillar of Portuguese literature.

Ângela de Almeida is part of the plethora of its creators who resist, write, and publish.

With an exceptional command of the word, she retains images, ideas, and feelings that she communicates slowly, in suspended complicity.

Concise and contained, her work has made her a reference author within our culture.

Fernando Dacosta (translation by Diniz Borges)

Ângela de Almeida, (Horta, Azores, August 6, 1959) is a Portuguese writer and scientific researcher.

Ph.D. in Portuguese Literature, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon, defended a thesis on the symbolism of the island and Pentecostalism in the literary work of Natalia Correia, having been her supervisor, Urbano Tavares Rodrigues.

With over a dozen published books, her poetic work and essays stand out. She is an ecumenical writer, developing her scientific work around human rights symbolism in Portuguese-speaking literature and cultures.