© Homem Cardoso

Teolinda Gersão (Coimbra, Portugal, 1940) is one of Portugal’s most acclaimed contemporary fiction writers and the author of an extensive body of novels and short-story collections. She has received numerous major literary awards, and her work gives voice to women, confronts colonialism, racism, and dictatorship, and affirms the value of art, imagination, and inner life in a world that increasingly pushes them to the margins.

Her books have been translated in twenty countries, and her fiction has inspired theatre, film, and radio adaptations, as well as inclusion in major international anthologies. Her short story The Red Fox Fur Coat, narrated by Kathleen Chalfant, was for several years included in the performance Celebrating the Short Story at Symphony Space, New York, and appears in the audiobook Wondrous Women (2008). It was also adapted for radio by Mike Walker and broadcast by the BBC and New York Public Radio in 2008.

She studied in Coimbra, Tübingen, and Berlin. She taught at the Technical University of Berlin and later became Full Professor of German Literature and Comparative Literature at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. Since the mid-1990s, she has devoted herself exclusively to writing.

Her most recent book is Autobiografia não escrita de Marta Freud(2024). A former writer-in-residence at the University of California, Berkeley, she lives and works in Lisbon.

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AWARDS

2025 — Urbano Tavares Rodrigues Prize — The Unwritten Autobiography of Martha Freud

2024 — APE/DGLAB Grand Prize for Novel and Novella (Best novel of the year in Portugal, second time awarded) — The Unwritten Autobiography of Martha Freud

2024 — SPA Grand Prize for Novel (finalist) — The Unwritten Autobiography of Martha Freud

2023 — DST Grand Prize for Literature —The Return of Júlia Mann to Paraty

2021 — Guerra Junqueiro Prize (lifetime achievement/body of work)

2018 — Albert Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award

2017 — Vergílio Ferreira Prize (for her entire body of work)

2017 — Camilo Castelo Branco Grand Prize for Short Fiction (second time awarded; best short-story book of the year in Portugal) — Tears, Loves, and Other Follies

2015 — Fernando Namora Prize (second time awarded) —Passages

2013 — António Quadros Prize — The City of Ulysses

2012 — Ciranda Prize — The City of Ulysses

2008 — Review Máxima Literature Prize

2008 — Inês de Castro Foundation Literary Prize — The Woman Who Stopped the Rain

2002 — Camilo Castelo Branco Grand Prize for Short Fiction (best short-story book of the year) — Stories of Seeing and Walking

2001 — Fernando Namora Prize — The Keyboards

1999 — Critics’ Prize (Portuguese Centre of the International Association of Literary Critics) — The Keyboards

1996 — Aristeion European Prize for Fiction (shortlisted)

1995 — APE Grand Prize for Novel and Novella (Portuguese Writers’ Association) (winner; best novel of the year in Portugal) — The House of the Horse’s Head

1989 — Portuguese PEN Club Prize for Novel— The Sun Horse

1981 — Portuguese PEN Club Prize for Novel — The Silence

REVIEWS

Her books have been reviewed in (selected): Los Angeles Review of Books, Intelligent Life (The Economist), The Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Times, Luso-Brazilian Studies, Purge Review, Cosmopolitan, L’Humanité, Lire, Le Contemporain, Sitartmagazine, Alors, Público, Expresso, Folha de S.Paulo, Valor (Globo) Jornal de Petrópolis, Jornal Rascunho, Jornal de Notícias, Diário de Notícias, Jornal de Letras, Jornal de Negócios.

SCREEN, STAGE & RADIO ADAPTATIONS

Film and Television

• 2022 — Vizinhas (Neighbours), a television / medium-length film directed by Sofia Teixeira Gomes for RTP, as part of the series Contado por Mulheres, based on Teolinda Gersão’s short story of the same name.

• 2018 — A Ponte na Califórnia (The Bridge in California), a short film directed by Pedro Amorim.

• 2014 — Miami, a short film by Simão Cayatte, based on the short story “Big Brother Isn’t Watching You.”

Theatre

• 2016 — Passagens inspired the stage production Passagens. Pensamentos em Palco, created by the company Os Quatro Ventos.

• 2013 — A Ponte na Califórnia was also adapted for theatre by Elisabete Pedreira at Teatro Rápido.

• 2005 — A Casa da Cabeça de Cavalo (The House of the Horse’s Head) was adapted for the stage in Romania, where it won the Marele Prize at the Bucharest Festival; it was also staged in Germany the same year.

• 2003 — Os Anjos (The Angels) was adapted for the stage by João Brites / O Bando.

• 2001 — Os Teclados was adapted for the stage and directed by Jorge Listopad at the Centro Cultural de Belém.

Radio

• 2008 — “Um casaco de raposa vermelha” (A Red Fox Fur Coat) was adapted as a radio play and broadcast by the BBC and New York Public Radio.

PUBLIC RECOGNITIONS

(selection)

2024 — Portuguese Cultural Studies, Vol. 8 (2024), Massachusetts University — a volume dedicated to Teolinda’s work, celebrating 40 years of literary career (José Ornelas and Paulo de Medeiros).

2024 — O Essencial sobre Teolinda Gersão (No. 139), Annabela Rita and Miguel Real — book dedicated to her work.

2024 — Honorary member, (Lisbon National Cultural Centre).

2021 — Honorary member, Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Rio de Janeiro.

2021 — Gold Medal of Cultural Merit, awarded by the City Council of Coimbra.