Lídia Jorge is a prominent Portuguesenovelist and author whose work is representative of a recent style of Portuguese writing, the so-called "Post Revolution Generation". Her books have won international recognition and have been published in many countries.
Life
Lídia Jorge was born in the village of Boliqueime in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in 1946. After finishing secondary school she moved to Lisbon to attend the Universidade de Lisboa where she obtained an Honours degree in Romanic Philology. Soon after completing these studies she became a secondary school teacher. She married a Portuguese military man, who served in the Portuguese colonies in Africa, and spent six very influential years in Portuguese-speaking Africa, two in Angola and four in Mozambique, a time that coincided with the latter period of the Portuguese Colonial War in Africa. The author was divorced in 1977. Later on she formed a relationship with journalist Carlos Albino. Lídia Jorge lives in Lisbon and has two children and one grandchild.
Publications and awards
Lídia Jorge’s first publication, the novelO Dia dos Prodígios , is considered to be a major contribution to the new wave of modern Portuguese literature which followed the end of the Estado Novo regime in 1974. The two novels which followed, O Cais das Merendas and Notícia da Cidade Silvestre both won the Literary Prize of the Lisbon Municipality. However, it was with A Costa dos Murmúrios , a book that draws upon her experiences in colonial Africa, that the author confirmed her status as one of the leading figures in modern Portuguese literature. In 1998 O Vale da Paixão won a number of awards including: the D. Dinis Prize from the Casa de Mateus Foundation; the Bordalo Literature Prize from the Casa da Imprensa; the Máxima Literature Prize; the P.E.N. Club Fiction Prize; and in the year 2000, the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature and European writer of the year. Four years later the novel O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas won the Grande Prémio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores and the Prémio Correntes d'Escritas. In 2007 Lídia Jorge published the novel Combateremos a Sombra , which was launched at the Fernando Pessoa Foundation in Lisbon. The Encyclopædia Britannica online speaks of its "... intricate poetic prose... at once lyrical and suspenseful, Combateremos a Sombra follows its protagonist, the psychoanalyst Osvaldo Campos, through a densely plotted maze of personal and political deception." This novel won the Michel Brisset Prize 2008 awarded by the French Psychiatrists Association. In 2009 the author published the essay Contrato Sentimental , a critical reflection on the future of Portugal. Her latest novel is entitled A Noite das Mulheres Cantoras . The author has had two anthologies of short stories published, Marido e Outros Contos and O Belo Adormecido , and the stand-alone stories A Instrumentalina and O Conto do Nadador . Lídia Jorge has also written for the younger public: O Grande Voo do Pardal illustrated by Inês de Oliveira, and Romance do Grande Gatão illustrated by Danuta Wojciechowska. Lídia Jorge’s stage playA Maçon was performed at Teatro NacionalDona Maria II in 1997. A Costa dos Murmurios has been recently adapted for the cinema by Margarida Cardoso. O Dia dos Prodígios was adapted for the stage and directed by Cucha Carvalhelho; the play was performed at Teatro Trindade, Lisboa, and Cineteatro Louletano in 2011. On the 30th anniversary of the publication of O Dia dos Prodígios the Council of Loulé organised a commemorative exhibition of her work entitled 30 Anos de Escrita Publicada . The exhibition was open to the public between November 2010 and March 2011, during which a series of talks, discussions and guided tours took place. In 2005 Lídia Jorge became France Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2006 she attended a ceremony in Germany where she was awarded the first ever International Albatroz Literature Prize by the Günter Grass Foundation for her work to date. She won the Latin Union International Prize in 2011. Lídia Jorge is Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidade do Algarve. In 2008 the author took part in the First International Writers Festival in Jerusalem, Israel. Lídia Jorge’s books are published in Portugal by Publicações Dom Quixote, except Contrato Sentimental, published by Editora Sextante. Her German agent is Literarische Agentur Dr. Ray-Güde Mertin based in Frankfurt. She also has a French agent. The author’s novels have been published in Brazil and translated into Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Greek, Hebrew and Swedish. At present Lídia Jorge writes a newspaper column twice a week for Jornal Público, a Portuguese newspaper.
