Memória: Anthology of Portuguese Canadian Writers – Fernanda Viveiros

Memória: Anthology of Portuguese Canadian Writers

This slender volume is a testament to the emergence of Portuguese Canadian literature, with more of their words and stories being brought to the attention of more people than ever before. In “Coastal poem,” Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto writes, My voice races towards you — never has it flown like this, so high over the world.” Portuguese Canadian literature is flying, quietly, through its own discovery. Showcasing contemporary fiction, nonfiction and poetry in order to reflect the changing Portuguese Canadian literary community while supporting new voices in the diaspora, Memória features fifteen writers whose work illustrates a wide range of experiences, narrative voices and sensibilities.

Contributors include Clemente Alves, Edith Baguinho, Nelia Botelho, Esmeralda Cabral, Tony Correia, paulo da costa, Humberto da Silva, Aida Jordão, Irene Marques, Antonio M. Marques, Emanuel Melo, Eduardo Bettencourt Pinto, Paul Serralheiro, Richard Simas and Laureano Soares. The foreword is written by renowned author and academic Onesimo T. Almeida. The book will be released November 19, 2013, and will be available for purchase at select bookstores and on Amazon.
Memória: An Anthology of Portuguese Canadian Writers is published by Fidalgo Books, a new independent press publishing Luso North American writers and Portuguese books in translation.

BACK LEAF of the book:

This first anthology of Portuguese Canadian writers serves as a superb introduction which cogently illustrates the emerging presence of Portuguese literary voices within the Canadian landscape. Embedded in its cultural meaning system, it provides a background upon which the scope of the texts can be located. In fact, the poetic and narrative texts, central to the fabric woven throughout this volume, involve not only the exploration of narrative memory and identity, but also paint a vibrant picture of the Portuguese diasporic world in which these writers live. Congratulations to editor Fernanda Viveiros for the initiative, and for presenting us with this rich and sophisticated selection. I am confident that the readers will truly appreciate it.
–Irene Maria F. Blayer, Full Professor, Brock University

Memória is a powerful and eloquent collection of writing about the Portuguese experience in Canada. The authors are Portuguese-Canadians spanning several generations, some of them writing in Portuguese, while others in English or French. Their short stories, poems and theatre deal with life in Portugal and the Azores and the anguish of uprootal and immigration to Canada, the struggle between generations, the transition of identity and the search for their Portuguese consciousness. They are writings of humour and loss, of love and conflicting desires, and of that particularly moving Portuguese longing, saudade, for worlds inhabited and left behind, but always in the hope of return. –Hugh Hazelton, co-director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre