News
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The Midwife of Torment – forthcoming book
The Midwife of Torment (sudden fictions) to be published in 2017 by Guernica Editions Meanwhile, enjoy two story excerpts from this forthcoming book: Pleasant Troubles The Midwife of Torment
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Malahat Review – Seamless Stories Haunt
The January 2014 issue (#185) of the University of Victoria’s Malahat Review features a review of The Green and Purple Skin of the World. Fiction Review by Norma Lundberg The Green and Purple Skin of the World: Stories by paulo da costa (Freehand, 2013). Paperbound, 208 pp., $21.95 The sixteen stories in this collection proceed so seamlessly a reader might initially suspect them of being slight—a smooth skin of words, a faint echo from the title. But just as our skin is only the surface of our complex bodies, these stories are alive with characters in their own complicated worlds. They slowly enter the reader and haunt…
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to be portuguese
to be portuguese is to be born with the fado around your neck to live with your eyes anchored to the open sea, longing for the outgoing tide or for its incoming wave living canned up between the sea and spain exporting sardines going to mass and forgetting the sermon it’s confessing to friends with a bottle in your hand and not making waves the ones that stir up the sea are enough praying for peace admiring fátima and batalha in the same holy visit to be portuguese is to love your car more than yourself and find it more affordable …
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Memória: An Anthology of Portuguese Canadian Writers
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…
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The Green and Purple Skin of the World – The Quill & Quire Review
The May issue of Quill & Quire features a review of The Green and Purple Skin of the World. The world described in paulo da costa’s second book of short fiction is a sensual one. A poet and translator, da costa favours imagistic language to explore characters’ relationships to one another and to nature, depicting a scenic tapestry of interpersonal phenomena that spans love, war, aging, and death. The book’s 16 stories tend to be brief, but the longer and more complex pieces are the most satisfying. A prioritization of setting and atmosphere over plot is established in the first story, “Flies,” in which two older Portuguese men lament the…
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Beneath Thin Skin – BC Bookworld feature
In BC’s Bookworld Summer Issue: a brief blurb and mini-interview on my new book. Beneath Thin Skin Possibly B.C.’s only Angolan-born author, paulo da costa was raised in Vale de Cambra, Portugal and arrived in Canada in 1989. Having won Best First Book, Canada & Caribbean Region of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2003, the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize in 2002 and the Canongate Prize for Short-Fiction in 2001, da costa moved to B.C. in 2003 and now lives on Vancouver Island. His stories have been translated to Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian and Portuguese. His new fiction collection is The Green and Purple Skin of the World…
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Sharp and True – a book review by the Coastal Spectator
Collection’s stories are sharp and true May 23, 2013 The Green and Purple Skin of the World By paulo da costa Freehand Books, 208 pages, $21.95 Reviewed by Yasuko Thanh Born in Angola, raised in Portugal, paulo da costa won the Commonwealth First Book Prize in 2003 for his collection The Scent of a Lie. In The Green and Purple Skin of the World, his first book of short fiction in 10 years, language and its power form a thread through many of the stories and words are highlighted in entertaining characters such as Dona Branca, who collects newspaper clippings of disasters and glues them in an old photo album.…
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Nuno Júdice wins prestigious Spanish poetry prize
The jury for this year’s edition of Spain’s Queen Sofia Ibero-American Poetry Prize meets in the Royal Palace in Madrid before announcing its decision. Portugal’s Nuno Judice was named the recipient of this year’s award for a body of poetry that is “very well-crafted, of a refined classicism,” yet at the same time deeply committed to reality, poet and jury member Jaime Siles said. EFE Madrid, May 16 (EFE).- Portugal’s Nuno Judice was selected Thursday as the winner of this year’s edition of the Queen Sofia Ibero-American Poetry Prize. The president of Spain’s National Heritage agency, Jose Rodriguez-Spiteri, announced the jury’s decision in a statement at the Royal Palace. The…
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Writers on Reading: paulo da costa
Writers on Reading: paulo da costa What book is currently on your bedside table? I read several books concurrently. On my night table I always build a leaning Tower of Pisa made of books. I am reading Saunders, Dobozy, Galeano, Tranströmer, Ian Williams, J. Vigna, J. Donaldson, Shaun Tan, Mia Couto, Jori Graham and more. When and where do you like to read? Outdoors, in nature, preferably near moving water… otherwise in bed, preferably still. What was the last great book you read? Several come to mind. Out Stealing Horses-Per Petterson, Cloud Atlas-Mitchell, The Lizard Cage-Karen Connely, Blindness-Saramago, The Book of Chameleons –Agualusa. Was there a book that changed your…
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Literary Bites in Bits: A Short Story List by paulo da costa
Each book in this selection is sliced in bite-sized portions, yet none miss any of the essential vitamins and minerals, delivering satisfying nourishment despite their small portions. Think of them as power-bars. These six books share in common a succinct, power-charged delivery of texts in condensed servings that leave me purring and yummying with delight. For those readers, like me, who appreciate snacking, these works exemplify the type of book I carry around in my shoulder bag, to sneak, peek and bite into, while waiting in lines, while moving along the day-to-day river of busyness. (…) Complete feature here
