ONDJAKI IS THE AUTHOR OF THE MONTH AT LIVRARIA LELLO
On Friday, June 17,at 9:30pm, Livraria Lello welcomes Ondjaki for a conversation with Carlos Nogueira, a professor at the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), about his literary career.
Ndalu de Almeida, known by the pseudonym Ondjaki, in addition to being a writer and poet, is also a prose writer, filmmaker and painter. He also dedicates part of his time to theatrical performances and plastic arts.
Born in Luanda in 1977, the writer is part of the first generation of Angolans who grew up in an independent country. His childhood was spent in an Angola at war, where he sought refuge in books and reading. Perhaps this is why Luanda is the central character in his writing and an inexhaustible source of the literary energy he uses to reinvent his own memories.
His artistic career began in theater, but quickly extended to writing with the comic-satirical magazine, Nganza Times, which he coordinated with his schoolmates. Literary and fiction writing came later, in Portugal, when he joined a creative writing course while studying Sociology in Lisbon.
He published his first book, Actu Sanguíneu, in 2000 and, since then, he has never stopped writing, having ventured into several literary styles, from novels to short stories, poetry and children's literature. It is precisely in this last category that his latest book, Senhor Feroz, published in 2022 with illustrations by Alex Gozblau, falls.
Os da Minha Rua, Bom dia Camaradas, and O Assobiador are other of the best-known works of the author who has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Serbian, Swahili, and Polish.
His more than 25 books have earned Ondjaki several literary prizes, including the Sagrada Esperança in 2004, the Prémio Literário António Paulouro in 2004, the Grande Prémio de Conto "Camilo Castelo Branco" of the Câmara Municipal de Vila Nova de Famalicão/APE, in 2007, the Grinzane for Africa Prize - Young Writer, in 2008, the Prémio FNLIJ, in 2010, 2013 and 2014, the Prémio JABUTI in the juvenile category, in 2010, and the Prémio Bissaya Barreto de Literatura para a Infância, in 2012.
In 2013, with Os transparentes, he won the Prémio José Saramago, joining Paulo José Miranda, José Luís Peixoto, Adriana Lisboa, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Valter Hugo Mãe, João Tordo, Afonso Reis Cabral, Julián Fuks, Bruno Vieira Amaral and Andréa del Fuego in the list of heirs of Saramago, the only Nobel Prize in Literature in the Portuguese language.
The author will be at Livraria Lello for a conversation with Carlos Nogueira to which all book lovers are invited. The session is free of charge and requires registration on Livraria Lello's website [here]. It will also be possible to watch the event via livestreaming on the Facebook page or on the Youtube channel of Livraria Lello.
