Fortaleza, 1910 – Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), 2003

By Flávio Aguiar

Pioneering spirit is accentuated in the trajectory of the Cearense writer, whose prose is a major expression consolidated by the intertwining of two forces – the Northeastern and the feminine. She began her journalism career at seventeen as a columnist for O Ceará. Four years later, she published O quinze, which reflects the social concerns, colloquial tone, and stripped-down language of her work. She was already well-established when she joined the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1977, becoming the first woman to hold a seat in the institution, which had awarded her the Machado de Assis Prize twenty years earlier.

With a controversial ideological profile, she joined the Communist Party in the 1930s and was sympathetic to the military regime of the 1960s. In Caminho de pedras (1937), she highlights the Northeastern realism that places her alongside Graciliano Ramos. Works like Dôra, Doralina (1975) reflect the feminist commitment of writers like Lygia Fagundes Telles. Translation, theater, and children’s literature complement the chronicles she published in newspapers and magazines, including O Cruzeiro, for which she wrote for 31 years. Another notable work is Memorial de Maria Moura (1992).