The writer Milton Hatoum was elected this Thursday (14) to Chair 6 of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (GLA). Chosen by 33 of 34 possible votes, andLe will succeed the journalist and writer Cícero Sandroni, who Died in June this year.
In addition to novelist, Hatoum is a short story writer, essayist, translator and university professor. In 1989, your first novel, Report of a certain Eastpublished by Companhia das Letras, won the Jabuti Award for Best Romance and was adapted to the cinema with the same name.
The president of ABL, Merval Pereira, said that Hatoum is the greatest living Brazilian writer and a first -rate novelist. “It will be very useful for us, already collaborates a lot with the Brazilian magazinenow there will be the opportunity to collaborate even more. “
The academic Ruy Castro celebrated the election of Hatoum: “Great novelist. Representative of a generation of fictionists. The academy has always had people of various origins, from all places, such as João do Rio, Pedro Lessa. It is a younger generation that is coming and has a great contribution to give.”
Miriam Leitão, who for the first time participated in an election at GLA, said that Hatoum is a first -rate novelist. “Arrives bringing all echoes in Brazil. A Brazil that comes from the Amazon.”
For academic Lilia Schwarcz, Milton Hatoum will contribute too much to the Brazilian Academy of Letters. She pointed out that the writer has a “citizen voice, an ethical voice.” “He is literature, does literature, goes to schools to talk about literature. He had a very representative vote.”
Biography
Milton Hatoum was born in Manaus in 1952. In 1968, he moved to Brasilia, where he studied at CIEM (College of Application of the University of Brasilia). He lived all the 1970s in São Paulo. He graduated in Architecture at the University of São Paulo (USP), where he developed a research under the guidance of geographer Milton Santos. In the 1970s, he was also a professor of history of architecture at the University of Taubaté.
Hatoum books already exceed 500,000 copies sold. Were published in 17 countries. The writer translated into Portuguese The Children’s Crusade (Marcel Schwob), Representations of the intellectual (Edward Said) and, in partnership with Samuel Titan, Three tales (Gustave Flaubert).
In October, Companhia das Letras will publish Deceit dance. The book is the last of the trilogy The darkest placeinspired by the time of the military dictatorship in Brazil.
