Nine islands. An infinite ocean. A thousand ways of remembering, dreaming, and belonging.

In Islands of Dreams and Longing, Azorean poet and essayist Aníbal C. Pires takes readers on an extraordinary literary and visual journey through the nine islands of the Azorean archipelago, where the Atlantic is more than an ocean, the landscape more than geography, and every horizon carries the memory of those who stayed, those who departed, and those who continue to dream of returning.

Blending evocative poetry, lyrical prose, intimate reflection, and striking photography, this remarkable volume reveals an Azores that transcends the familiar beauty of its volcanic mountains, emerald valleys, ancient villages, and endless blue horizons. These are islands of human endurance and fragile beauty, of solitude and solidarity, of ancient traditions and contemporary challenges, of memories that refuse to disappear and aspirations that insist upon becoming tomorrow.

With a poetic voice at once contemplative and passionately engaged, Aníbal C. Pires celebrates the distinctive character of each island while exploring the deeper questions of identity, freedom, social justice, cultural preservation, emigration, and belonging. His writing does not merely admire the landscape; it interrogates the human experience within it. Beneath the mist and basalt, beyond the harbors and stone walls, he discovers the extraordinary dignity of ordinary lives and the enduring tension between the islands we have inherited and those we must still imagine.

The magnificent photographs by Aníbal C. Pires and Madalena Ferreira Pires enter into an intimate conversation with the written word. Rather than simply illustrating the poems and reflections, these images deepen their emotional resonance, capturing the changing light, elemental textures, silences, and astonishing natural beauty of an archipelago suspended between Europe and the Americas. Together, word and image create a luminous geography of memory and imagination.

Beautifully translated into English by Diniz Borges, Islands of Dreams and Longing opens this deeply Azorean literary experience to readers throughout the world. For those whose ancestral roots lie in the islands, it offers an intimate rediscovery of a homeland that continues to live across generations and oceans. For those encountering the Azores for the first time, it is an invitation to discover not simply a breathtaking destination, but a living culture, a complex history, and a profoundly human way of inhabiting the world.

At once a celebration of place, a meditation on the passage of time, and a compelling affirmation of the power of poetry and photography, this is a book to be read slowly, contemplated deeply, and returned to often.

For the Azores are not merely nine islands scattered across the Atlantic. They are nine ways of understanding the sea, nine expressions of human resilience, and an enduring reminder that the places we love continue to inhabit us long after we have crossed their horizons. The book will be launched on São Miguel island on October 24th.

Some islands are discovered through travel. Others can only be discovered through poetry.

A joint publication of Letras Lavadas and Bruma Publications, the publishing imprint of the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at California State University, Fresn

By Aníbal C. Pires
Translated into English by Diniz Borges
Photography by Aníbal C. Pires and Madalena Ferreira Pires