Adriana Lunardi
- Brasil
- Zu Gast beim ilb: 2006
Adriana Lunardi was born in Xaxin, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, in 1964. She studied Communications and worked as a journalist and in the advertising industry. She currently writes texts and screenplays for Brazilian television, and, among other things, she writes the documentary series »Expedições«, which reports on cultural, social and environmental issues.
Her literary career began with the well received volume of short stories »As meninas da Torre Helsinque« (1996; t: The girls of the Helsinki tower). This collection of novellas, which received two Brazilian literary awards, deals with love and sexuality in the lives of adolescent girls. Lunardi’s stories are characterised by the brevity of their form of representation and great empathy. They were selected for various anthologies, such as »O Livro das Mulheres« (2001; t: The book of women), »Pata maldita« (2001; t: The cursed leg), »25 mulheres que estão fazendo a nova literatura brasileira« (2004; t: 25 women of new Brazilian literature) and »Contos sobre tela« (2005; t: Tales on canvas). Her most recent work, »Vésperas« (2002; t: Eves), was translated into French, Croatian and Spanish, and was published in Portugal in 2006. It is a collection of nine short stories which depict the circumstances of death of the female writers Dorothy Parker, Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector, Colette, Katherine Mansfield, Sylvia Plath, Zelda Fitzgerald, Ana Cristina César and Julia da Costa. Despite the gravity of the theme, and even if some of the women represented departed from life voluntarily, their moment of death is portrayed with lightness and without pathos. In Lunardi’s section on Virginia Woolf, for instance, the protagonist is haunted by voices from unwritten texts and her entry into the river represents a liberation. Dorothy Parker’s lonely death is narrated from the limited perspective of her dog. Without imitating the styles of the writers concerned, Lunardi manages, in presenting their final thoughts and gestures, to forge a connection to their work, by taking her literary composition beyond biographical facts. In this way she creates an insightful and imaginative homage to these female contributors to world literature.
Lunardi was awarded a writer’s grant by the Brazilian National Library. She also received the Prêmio Fumproarte and the Prêmio Açorianos in the categories of »New Discoveries« and »Best Short Stories«. The author lives in Rio de Janeiro and is currently working on a novel.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
As meninas da Torre
Helsinque
Mercado Aberto
Prefeitura de Porto Alegre, 1996
Vésperas
Rocco
Rio de Janeiro, 2002
As meninas da Torre
Helsinque
Mercado Aberto
Prefeitura de Porto Alegre, 1996
Vésperas
Rocco
Rio de Janeiro, 2002