José Luís Peixoto

José Luís Peixoto (born September 1974, in Galveias, Portalegre, Portugal), is a Portuguese writer who has written fiction, poetry, drama, lyrics and has participated in a wide number of projects involving writing.

Biographical note

Jose Luis Peixoto was born in a small village from the south interior of Portugal, in the Portuguese region of Alentejo.

He has a degree in Modern English and German Literature in the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Before devoting himself to writing professionally, he taught for a year in Praia, Cabo Verde and in several cities in Portugal.

He has published poetry and fiction and received the Prize Jovens Criadores (Young Creators) in the years of 1997, 1998 and 2000.

In 2001, his novel "Nenhum Olhar" (Blank Gaze) received the Jose Saramago Literary Award. Jose Luis Peixoto is represented in a great number Portuguese and international anthologies and he has collaborated in a lot of international literary magazines.

In 2003, in a totally unprecedented project, Peixoto joined forces with the Gothic metal band Moonspell and together they produced a book and record, "The Antidote".

In 2005, he wrote the theatre plays "Anathema" (premiered in Theatre de la Bastille in Paris) and "À Manhã" (premiered in Teatro São Luiz, Lisbon.

His works have been published in France, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey, Finland, Holland, Spain (Spanish and Catalan), Czech Republic, Croatia, Belarus and Brazil, among many others. Currently there are being prepared editions of his novels in United States, United Kingdom, Hungary and Japan.

His first novel in English translation ("Blank Gaze") was published in the UK in November 2007 by Bloomsbury and it will come out in 2008 in the US (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday), under the title "The Implacable Order of Things".

Jose Luis Peixoto is the Portugal's most acclaimed, prize-winning young novelist.

Published works

Fiction

* 2000 - "Morreste-me" (fiction, narrative)
* 2000 - "Nenhum Olhar" (novel)
* 2002 - "Uma Casa na Escuridão" (novel)
* 2003 - "Antidoto" (fiction, narrative)
* 2006 - "Cemitério de Pianos" (novel)
* 2008 - "Cal" (fiction, narrative)

Poetry

* 2001 - "A Criança em Ruínas"
* 2002 - "A Casa, a Escuridão"
* 2008 - "Gaveta de Papéis"

Plays

* 2005 - "Anathema"
* 2005 - "À Manhã"
* 2007 - "Quando o Inverno Chegar"

Columns

* Writes a regular column in the Portuguese cultural newspaper Jornal de Letras and in the portuguese weekly magazine Visão.

Lyrics

* Has written lyrics for Da Weasel, Mísia, [http://www.anaifa.com/ A Naifa] , [http://www.joanaamendoeira.com/ Joana Amendoeira] and Quinta do Bill, among several others.

Literary Prizes

* Prémio Jovens Criadores, Instituto Português da Juventude in 1997, 1998 and 2000
* Prémio José Saramago, from "Fundação Círculo de Leitores", 2001.
* Prémio de Poesia Daniel Faria, 2008
* Prémio Cálamo Outra Mirada, 2008

Translated Works

*Morreste-me:
*Italy – Questa Terra ora Crudele, trad. Giulia Lanciani, La Nuova Frontiera, 2005
*Spain – Te me moriste, trad. Antonio Saez Delgado, E.R.E., 2004
*Catalonia – Te’m morrires, trad. Antoni Xumet Rosselo, El Gall, 2006
*Croatia – Umro si me, trad. Dean Trdak, 2004
*France – La Mort du Pére, trad. Marie Claire Vromans, I.C.B., 2002

*Nenhum Olhar:
*UK - Blank Gaze, trad. Richard Zenith, 2007
*USA - The Implacable Order of Things, trad. Richard Zenith, 2008
*France - Sans un Regard, trad. François Rosso, Grasset, 2003
*Nederlands – De Blik, trad. Piet Janssen, Meulenhoff, 2003
*Finland – Tyhja Taivas, trad. Tarja Harkonen, Wsoy, 2005
*Italy – Nessuno Sguardo, trad. Silvia Cavalieri, La Nuova Frontiera, 2002
*Spain – Nadie nos Mira, trad. Bego Montorio, Hiru, 2001
*Czech Republic – Nikdo se Nedív·, trad. Desislava Dimitrovova, Barrister, 2004
*Croatia – Nijedan Pogled, trad. Tanja Tarbuk, V.B.Z., 2004
*Turkey – Tek Bir Bakis Yeter, trad. Senem Sen, Arkadas, 2005
*Belarus – ********, 2006
*Bulgaria –********, Pet Plus, 2006
*Brazil – Nenhum Olhar, Agir/Ediouro, 2005
*Hungary - Egyetlen pillantás nélkül, trad Bense Monica, Europa, 2007
*(Rights sold to Greece, Poland)

*Uma Casa na Escuridão:
*France – Une Maison dans les Ténèbres, trad. François Rosso, Grasset, 2006
*Italy – Una Casa nel Buio, trad. Vicenzo Russo, La Nuova Frontiera, 2004
*(Rights sold to UK, Spain)

*Cemitério de Pianos:
*Spain - Cementerio de Pianos, trad. Carlos Acevedo, El Aleph, 2007
*France - Le Cimetière de Pianos, trad. François Rosso, Grasset, 2008
*(Rights sold to Italy, Brazil, Nederlands, Israel, Greece).

*Antídoto
*Italy - L'Antidoto, Scritturapura, 2008

*A Casa, a Escuridão:
*Bulgária – **********, trad. Sidonia Pojarlieva e Vera Kipovka, 2006

*Criança em Ruínas
*(Rights sold to Spain, Brazil, Poland)

Praise

“José Luís Peixoto is one of the most surprising revelations in recent Portuguese literature.” –José Saramago

“Brilliantly rendered episodic tales of rural loss...Peixoto's evocation of pathos is tempered by a keen sense of the absurd. His ironic sensibility shines through beautifully in this translation.” –Financial Times

“Peixoto’s bold, incantatory prose is consistently beautiful… simple but also incredibly rich and resonant. ….The external narrator’s own wise words are picked up and repeated by the characters, as though these portentous lines, these profound thoughts are out there… like great discovered truths. That even these weighty lines are moving and thought-provoking, rather than pretentious, is further testament to the author’s considerable skills.” - The Independent (UK)

“ [The Implacable Order of Things] poses difficult questions and challenges the reader… but the patient reader finds great rewards.” – The Australian

“You read and breathe as if you were downing a bottle of life in one gulp.” – Le Figaro

“‘Peixoto comes from the world of poetry and of the theatre. And this can be sensed here. His pages, purified in the lyrical prose that makes them unique, introduce us to a rural space burned by the sun, inhabited by the singing of the cicadas and suspended in a mythical time where each action has a biblical inevitability.” – Vogue Italia

The José Luís Peixoto Literary Award

The Municipality of Ponte de Sor, in Portugal, has created a literary award for authors (under 25) with Jose Luis Peixoto's name.

References

*"Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias", #945, December 20 - January 2, 2007 - Portugal.

External links

* [http://www.joseluispeixoto.net Official site]
* [http://www.joseluispeixoto.net/bio_en.htm Bio in english]
* [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/074758947X Blank Gaze at Amazon.com]
* [http://www.bloomsbury.com/authors/microsite.asp?id=1370&section=1 Peixoto at Bloomsbury]
*pt icon [http://nescritas.nletras.com/poemasjoseluispeixoto Biography information and excerpts from all his works]
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/nanatalese/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385524469 Implacable Order of Things at Nan A. Talese]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/blank-gaze-by-jos-luiacutes-peixoto-trans-richard-zenith-760014.html Review in The Independent - UK]