Lídia Jorge

Lídia Jorge (born June 18, 1946) is a prominent Portuguese writer.

Life

Lídia Jorge is a Portuguese writer whose work is representative of a new style of writing, the so-called ‘Post Revolution Generation’. Her books have won international recognition and have been published in many countries.

Lídia Jorge was born in the village of Boliqueime in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in 1946. After finishing high school she moved to Lisbon to attend the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon) where she obtained a bachelor's degree in Romanic Philology. Soon after completing these studies Lídia Jorge became a high 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 (1968 – 1970) and four in Mozambique (1970 – 1974) - a time that coincided with the latter period of the Portuguese Colonial War in Africa.

Publications

Lídia Jorge’s first publication, the novel "O Dia dos Prodígios" [The Day of the Prodigies] (1980), is considered to be a major contribution to the new wave of modern Portuguese literature. The two novels which followed, "O Cais das Merendas" [The Wharf of the Parties’ Remains] (1982) and "Notícia da Cidade Silvestre" [The Wild Town Remembering] (1984) both won the Literary Prize of the Lisbon Municipality.

However, it was with "A Costa dos Murmurios" [The Murmuring Coast] (1988) – 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.

The 1998 "O Vale da Paixão" [The Painter of Birds] won a number of awards including: the D. Dinis Prize by the Casa de Mateus Foundation; the Bordalo Literature Prize by Casa da Imprensa; the Máxima Literature Prize; the P.E.N. Club Fiction Prize; and in the year 2000, the Jean Monet Prize for European Literature and European writer of the year. Four years later, Lídia Jorge published "O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas" [The Wind Whistling in the Cranes] (2002), ), a novel that won the Grande Prémio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (Great Prize of the Portuguese Writers Association) and the Premio Correntes da Literatura.

The author has published two anthologies of short stories, "Marido e Outros Contos" [Husband and Other Stories] (1997) and "O Belo Adormecido" [The Sleeping Beau] (2003). Other publications include "A Instrumentalina" [The Little Instrument] (1992) and "O Conto do Nadador" [The story of the Swimmer] (1992).

Lídia Jorge’s stage play "A Maçon" [The Mason] was performed at the National Theatre of Dona Maria II in 1997. [http://www.iofilm.co.uk/fm/m/murmuring_coast_2004.shtml] . Her "A Costa dos Murmurios" has been recently adapted to the cinema by Margarida Cardoso.

Lídia Jorge’s novels have also been published in Brazil and translated into Spanish, French, English, German, Italian, Greek, Hebrew and Swedish.

In 2006 the author 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.

In 2007 Lídia Jorge published her latest novel "Combateremos a Sombra" [We Shall Fight the Shadow] , which was released by the Fernando Pessoa Foundation in Lisbon. The "Encyclopaedia Britannica" online speaks of its " ... intricate poetic prose ... at once lyrical and suspenseful, "Combateremos a sombra" followed its protagonist, the psychoanalyst Osvaldo Campos, through a densely plotted maze of personal and political deception."

In 2008 the author was invited to take part in the First International Writers Festival in Jerusalem, Israel.

All of Lídia Jorge’s books are published in Portugal by Publicações Dom Quixote. Her German agent is Literarische Agentur Dr. Ray-Güde Mertin based in Frankfurt. She also has a French agent.

Lídia Jorge resides in Lisbon, Portugal.

Works

Novels:
* "O Dia dos Prodígios" (The Day of Prodigies) - 1980
* "O Cais das Merendas" (The Quay of the Parties Remains) - 1982
* "Notícia da Cidade Silvestre" (The Wild Town Remembering) - 1984
* "A Costa dos Murmúrios" (The Murmuring Coast) - 1988
* "A Última Dona" - 1992
* "O Jardim Sem Limites" - 1995
* "O Vale da Paixão" (The Painter of Birds) - 1998
* "O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas" (The Wind Whistling in the Cranes) - 2002
* "Combateremos a Sombra" (We will fight the Shadow) - 2007

Short-Stories:
* "A Instrumentalina" (The Instrumentalina) - 1992
* "O Conto do Nadador" (The story of the Swimmer) - 1992
* "Marido e outros Contos" (Husband and Other Stories) - 1997
* "O Belo Adormecido" (The Sleeping Beauty Boy) - 2004

Plays:
* "A Maçon" (The Mason) - 1997

External links

* [http://www.plcs.umassd.edu/pdfs/plcs2-pt3.pdf#search=%22l%C3%ADdia%20jorge%22 Donning the “Gift” of Representation: Lídia Jorge’s "A Instrumentalina"] , by Ana Paula Ferreira