Torcato Sepúlveda

Torcato Sepúlveda (February 27, 1951 – May 21, 2008) was a Portuguese newspaper journalist.[1][2] His full name was Torcato de Sepúlveda Duarte Macedo.[2] He was known for his book reviews and cultural journalism for several Portuguese newspapers.[2] Sepúlveda was the first cultural editor of the Público, well regarded national daily newspaper.[1][2]

Sepúlveda was born in 1951 in Braga, Portugal, to parents who were elementary school teachers.[2] He received his degree in Romance philology from the University of Coimbra, where he participated in the students demonstrations against António de Oliveira Salazar.[1] [2] For his part in the demonstrations, Sepúlveda lived in exile in Brussels, Belgium, from 1971 until 1974.[2] He did not return to Portugal until April 25, 1974,[1] which coincided with the start of the Carnation Revolution.

Once he returned to Portugal, Sepúlveda began working at the copy desk of the Expresso, weekly publication.[2] He began writing weekly book reviews for the Expresso, which he signed using a shortened version of his name, John Macedo.[2] Sepúlveda also wrote under the pseudonyms of Buíça, Silva of Viseu and D. Luis da Cunha during his career.[2]

Sepúlveda left the Expresso for the Público, a daily national newspaper published in Lisbon.[2] He became the first editor of Público's society and cultural section of the newspaper.[1][2] He also wrote later worked for the now defunct newspapers, A Capital and O Independente.[2]

Sepúlveda later worked as a journalist for NS, the Saturday magazine supplement for the Diário de Notícias until his death in 2008.[1][2]

Torcato Sepúlveda died on May 21, 2008, at the age of 57 at the Hospital de Almada in Almada, Portugal, of an undisclosed illness.[1] He had been hospitalized at the Hospital Garcia de Orta for the previous two days.[1]