- João Barreiros
João Manuel Rosado Barreiros (born
July 31 ,1952 ), also known by thepseudonym José de Barros, is a Portuguesescience fiction writer, editor, translator and critic.He graduated in
Philosophy from theUniversity of Lisbon in 1977, and has been teaching it inhigh school since 1975. His experiences in education eventually led him to write a semi-autobiographicalsatire titled "The Test" in 2000.Fiction
Barreiros's writing style, influenced by that of
Robert Silverberg andJames Tiptree, Jr , is distinctively sardonic and shows a marked tendency towards satire andblack comedy .His plots frequently employ unlikeable
protagonist s in dystopic settings, where they are faced with the brutality of everyday life and are often thwarted by their own actions in the end. The stories tend to offer extremely graphic depictions of violence, and utterly rejectpolitical correctness and its icons —Walt Disney andSesame Street are frequent targets of derision by Barreiros, for example, and he has gone so far as to castBig Bird analogues as the principalantagonist s in "A verdadeira invasão dos marcianos".Some of Barreiros's work has been translated into English, Spanish, French, Italian and Serbian.
He has twice won the
Brazil ianNova Award , offered by fans to the best foreign short story published inSouth America .Miscellaneous activity
João Barreiros's book and film reviews have appeared in publications such as "
Público ", "O Independente ", "Ler" and "Os Meus Livros". The mercilessness of Barreiros's criticism earned him a reputation among Portuguese science fiction fans, and histitanium nibfountain pen gained legendary status as a result.During the 1980s and early 1990s, Barreiros edited two science fiction and fantasy labels for Editora Clássica and Gradiva. Among the writers he introduced to a Portuguese audience are
Iain M. Banks ,William Gibson ,Peter Straub ,Dan Simmons andA. A. Attanasio . Publishers usually balked at Barreiros's unorthodox picks, and so books likeStephen R. Donaldson 's "Lord Foul's Bane",Nancy A. Collins 's "Sunglasses After Dark " andJames Blaylock 's "The Last Coin " were translated but never published.Barreiros also co-founded Simetria — Portuguese Science Fiction and Fantasy Association in 1995 (he later broke from it, in 1999), and the
Portuguese Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 2005.Bibliography
* "Duas fábulas tecnocráticas" (collection, 1977)
* "O caçador de brinquedos e outras histórias" (collection, 1994)
* "Terrarium: Um romance em mosaicos" (withLuís Filipe Silva , 1996)
* "Disney no céu entre os Dumbos" (2001 [online] , 2006 [print] )
* "A verdadeira invasão dos marcianos" (2004)
* "A bondade dos estranhos: Projecto Candyman" (2007)External links
* [http://ficcao.online.pt/enciclopedia/barreiros-j.php Detailed bibliography]
Fiction
* [http://ficcao.online.pt/E-nigma/ficcao/noiteperiferiaimperio.html "Uma Noite na Periferia do Império"] , at "E-nigma"
* [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/silent.htm "Silent Night"] , at "Infinity Plus "
* [http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/synch/ "Synchronicity"] , at "Fantastic Metropolis"
* [http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/test/ "The Test"] , at "Fantastic Metropolis"
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