Lídia Jorge

Lídia Jorge was born in the village of Boliqueime in the Algarve region of southern Portugal in a family of farmers and emigrants. She graduated in Romance Philology from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon and became a secondary school teacher. In this position she spent some decisive years in Angola and Mozambique, during the last period of the Portuguese Colonial War, but most of her teaching career was in Portugal. She was a visiting professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon between 1995 and 1999. She also served as a member of the Portuguese High Authority for Media ((Social Communication)) and was a member of the General Council of the University of Algarve.

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 which followed the end of the Estado Novo regime in 1974. 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 Lisbon Municipality Literary Prize.

It was, however, with A Costa dos Murmúrios [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.

In 1998 O Vale da Paixão [The Painter of Birds] won a number of awards. Four years later the novel O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas [The Wind Whistling in the Cranes] (2002)[1] won the Grande Prémio da Associação Portuguesa de Escritores (Portuguese Writers' Association Prize) and the Prémio Correntes d'Escritas (Prize for New Currents in Writing).

In 2007 Lídia Jorge published the novel Combateremos a Sombra [We Shall Fight the Shadow], which was launched at the Fernando Pessoa Foundation in Lisbon. This novel won the Michel Brisset Prize 2008 awarded by the French Psychiatrists Association.

In 2009 the author published the essay Contrato Sentimental [Sentimental Contract], a critical reflection on the future of Portugal. In 2011 she wrote A Noite das Mulheres Cantoras [The Night of the Singing Women].

Os Memoráveis, published in 2014, is a book about the mythology of the Carnation Revolution, recovering the theme of O Dia dos Prodígios, her first book. In 2018, she published Estuário,[2] about the vulnerability of the present time. In 2022, the writer published Misericórdia,[3] a reflection on humanity and a tribute to her mother, Maria dos Remédios, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. With this novel, Lídia Jorge won several prizes.

Lídia Jorge has also written for the younger audience: O Grande Voo do Pardal [The Great Flight of the Sparrow] (2007) illustrated by Inês de Oliveira, and Romance do Grande Gatão [Big Tomcat's Novel] (2010) illustrated by Danuta Wojciechowska.

Although she had written poetry from an early age, it was only in 2019 that she published her first book of poems, O Livro das Tréguas. Lídia Jorge has published anthologies of short stories, Marido e Outros Contos [Husband and Other Stories] (1997), O Belo Adormecido [The Sleeping Beau] (2003), Praça de Londres [London Plaza] (2008), O Amor em Lobito Bay [Love in Lobito Bay] (2016) in addition to separate editions of A Instrumentalina (1992) and O Conto do Nadador [The story of the Swimmer] (1992).

In 2020, under the title Em Todos os Sentidos,[4] she gathered the chronicles she had read over the course of a year on Portuguese public radio, Antena 2. In 2022, the writer published Misericórdia, a reflection on humanity and a tribute to her mother, Maria dos Remédios, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic.[5]

- the colonial and dictatorial past;

- the meaning of revolutions;

- tensions between modern and postmodern society;

- conflicts between generations;

- family breakups;

- the female condition;

- emigration.

The literary agency that represents Lídia Jorge, Literarische Agentur Dr. Ray-GüdeMertin (of the literature professor and literary agent by the same name), is based in Frankfurt and is now directed by Nicole Witt.

Lídia Jorge's novels are translated into several languages. Her works, in addition to editions in Brazil, have been translated into more than twenty languages, namely English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, Italian and Greek, and are the object of study in Portuguese and foreign universities. Several essays have also been dedicated to them.

The University of Algarve, on December 15, 2010, awarded her a Doctorate Honoris Causa.[9] In 2020, issue 205 of COLÓQUIO LETRAS Magazine was dedicated to her. In 2021, number 136 of the Spanish Magazine TURIA also dedicated its main dossier to the novelist. In September of that year, the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, inaugurated the Lídia Jorge Chair and in November,[10] at the University of Massachusetts UMass Amherst, the protocol for a Lídia Jorge Chair was signed. This Chair was inaugurated in April 2022.[11]

On December 17, 2004, the Municipal Council of Albufeira inaugurated the Lídia Jorge Municipal Library in her honour.[12] To mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of O Dia dos Prodígios, the Municipality of Loulé promoted a large bio-bibliographic exhibition, “Thirty Years of Published Writing", between November 2010 and March 2011 at the Convento de Santo António dos Olivais.[13]

In Portugal, the then President of the Republic, Jorge Sampaio, awarded her the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique on March 9, 2005.[14] The President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac, on April 13, 2005, decorated her as a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters, being later elevated to the rank of Officer, on July 14, 2015.

In 2021, Lídia Jorge was appointed member of the Portuguese Council of State by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa for the period 2021-2026.[15]

She is a regular contributor to Jornal de Letras and has written chronicles for Público[16] and El País.[17]

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 (Available in English)
• A Última Dona - 1992
• O Jardim Sem Limites (Limitless Garden) - 1995
• O Vale da Paixão (The Painter of Birds) - 1998 (Available in English)
• O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas (The Wind Whistling in the Cranes) - 2002
• Combateremos a Sombra (We Shall Fight the Shadow) - 2007
• A Noite das Mulheres Cantoras (The Night of the Singing Women) - 2011
• Os Memoráveis (The Memorable) - 2014
• Estuário (Estuary) - 2018
• Misericórdia - 2022

Short-Stories:

• A 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 Beau) - 2004
• Praça de Londres (London Plaza) - 2008
• O Organista (The Organist) - 2014
• O Amor em Lobito Bay (Love in Lobito Bay) - 2016

Children's Literature:

• O Grande Voo do Pardal [The Great Flight of the Sparrow] - (2007)
• Romance do Grande Gatão [Big Tomcat's Novel] - (2010)
• O Conto da Isabelinha (Lilibeth's Tale) - 2018

Essays:

• Contrato Sentimental (Sentimental Contract) - 2009

Plays:

• A Maçon (The Mason) - 1997
• Instruções para Voar (Instructions to Fly) - 2016

Poetry:

• O Livro das Tréguas - 2019

Chronicles:

• Em todos os Sentidos - 2020

• Malheiro Dias Prize, Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (1981)
• Cidade de Lisboa Literary Prize (1982 and 1984), O Cais das Merendas
• Dom Dinis Prize, Casa de Mateus Foundation (1998), O Vale da Paixão and Notícia da Cidade Silvestre
• Bordallo Literature Prize, Casa da Imprensa (1998), O Vale da Paixão
• Máxima Literature Prize (1998), O Vale da Paixão
• P.E.N. Club Fiction Prize (1998), O Vale da Paixão
• Jean Monnet European Literature Prize, European Writer of the Year, France (2000), O Vale da Paixão
• Portuguese Writers Association Prize (2002), O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas
• Correntes d’Escritas Prize (2002), O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas
• International Albatroz Literature Prize, Günter Grass Foundation, Germany (2006)
• Portuguese Writers Association Prize – Millenium BCP (2007)
• Giuseppe Acerbi Special Prize Scrittura Femmenile, Italy (2007)
• French Psychiatrists Association, Michel Brisset Prize, France (2008), Combateremos a Sombra
• Latin Union International Prize (2011)
• Spanish-Portuguese Art and Culture Prize (2014)
• Vergílio Ferreira Prize (2015)
• Urbano Tavares Rodrigues Prize (2015)
• XXIV Grand Prize in Literature DST (2019),[19] Estuário
• Rosalía de Castro do Centro PEN Galiza Prize (2020)
• FIL Award for Literature in Romance Languages (2020)[20]
• Grand Prize for Chronicle, Portuguese Writers Association Prize /City Council of Loulé (2021), Em Todos os SentidoGrande
• Prize Vida Literária Vítor Aguiar e Silva (2022/2023)
• Portuguese Writers Association Prize (2022), Misericórdia
• Prize Eduardo Lourenço 2023 (Centro de Estudos Ibéricos), Misericórdia [21]
• Prize Urbano Tavares Rodrigues 2023 (FENPROF), Misericórdia
• P.E.N. Club Narrative Prize 2023, Misericórdia

• Donning the “Gift” of Representation: Lídia Jorge's A Instrumentalina, by Ana Paula Ferreira