São Paulo – Brazilian writer Marcelino Freire (pictured above) delivered a creative writing workshop in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from January 23 to 27, to ten Brazilian female writers living in the Arab country.
Born in Sertânia, Pernambuco, the Brazilian author won the Machado de Assis prize in 2014 for his novel Nossos ossos and the Jabuti award in 2006. For his short story compendium Contos negreiros. His books were adapted for the theater and also translated into French, Spanish and Italian.
“The intensive classes, the individual exercises and the constructive criticism he gave to each participant’s work had a unique mentoring tone. His training as an actor gives him the ability to make people laugh while learning, as he embodies the character of Mother Celina while talking about vertical tapering or the excessive use of adverbs,” author Zana Bonafe, one of the participants, was quoted as saying in a statement.
The workshop was an initiative of Verônika Eleutério, an author and former pupil of Freire’s, who had also brought Socorro Acioli to Dubai in 2021. The members of the study group were handpicked by Eleutério.
Some of the participants already have published works, like Wiana Kell, Úrsula Coli, Bonafé, and Eleutério herself. Zana Bonafé, for example, is the author Maids In Dubai and was one of the winners of the First Chapter — The ELF Seddiqi Writers’ Fellowship, a program held by the UAE’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature. Several others have works that are almost completed.
The pupils promised to continue their development and learning within the UAEscreve group, the community of Brazilian writers they are part of. Freire’s trip also included an event organized by the Dubrasil Literary Club, which read and discussed his work Contos negreiros, a collection of short stories that gives voice to the oppressed, the Black and the poor.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
