Matilde Rosa Araújo

Matilde Rosa Lopes de Araújo (born June 20, 1921 in Lisbon ; † July 6, 2010 there ) was a Portuguese writer , children's and young adult book author .

Life

Araújo was born in 1921 in the Lisbon municipality of Benfica . After attending school, she studied Romance languages at the Faculty of Literature at the University of Lisbon ( Universidade Clássica de Lisboa ) and graduated in 1945 with a thesis on the academic analysis of journalism . She then worked as a primary school teacher at a primary school in Lisbon ( Escola do Magistério Primário de Lisboa ). After that she was a teacher in Lisbon, Barreiro , Portalegre , Elvas and Porto in the following years .

She was also a journalist for the daily newspapers A Capital , O Comércio do Porto , República , Diário de Lisboa , Diário de Notícias and Jornal do Fundão as well as for the magazines Távola Redonda , Graal , Árvore , Vértice , Seara Nova and Colóquio / Letras . Araújo, who campaigned for children's rights at an early stage , was one of the founding members of UNICEF and the Institute for the Protection of Children ( Instituto de Apoio à Criança ) in Portugal. As such, she has written numerous articles on the education of children as well as the usefulness of children's literature in adult education.

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She made her literary debut in 1943 with A Garrana , a short story about euthanasia , with which she won the Procura-se Novelista competition of the magazine O Século , whose jury was headed by Aquilino Ribeiro .

Her other publications in adult literature included Estrada Sem Nome (Street Without a Name), with which she won a competition from the Faculty of Literature, Praia Nova (New Beach), O Chão e as Estrelas (The Ground and Due Stars) and Voz Nua ( Naked voice).

Her first book of children's and youth literature was O Livro da Tila (The Book of Tila) from 1957. In this she described her travels between Lisbon and Portalegre and whose poems were set to music by the composer Fernando Lopes-Graça . In the following time appeared:

• O Palhaço Verde (The Green Clown),
• História de um Rapaz (story of a youth),
• O Sol eo Menino dos Pés Frios (The sun and the boy with cold feet),
• O Reino das Sete Pontas (The Kingdom of the Seven Points),
• História de uma Flor (story of a flower),
• O Gato Dourado (The Golden Cat),
• As Botas de Meu Pai (My father's boots),
• As Fadas Verdes (The Green Elves),
• Segredos e Brincadeiras (Secrets and Tricks),
• A saquinha da flor as well
• Lucilina e Antenor (Lucilina and Antenor).

Awards

For her literary achievement and her work in 1980, she received along with Ricardo Alberty the Grand Prize for Children's Literature ( Grande Prémio de Literatura para Criança ) of the Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian ( Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ). In 1991 she received the Best Foreign Book Award from the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo ( Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte ) for her book The Green Clown . In 1994 she was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Prize of the International Board on Books for Young People ( IBBY ), a prize that is regarded as the Nobel Prize in children's and young adult literature. In 1995 she received the Gulbenkian Prize for the best children's book of the years 1994/95 for The Green Elves . On International Women's Day on March 8, 2003, she was appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique by Jorge Sampaio , President of Portugal , for her services to Portuguese literature . Most recently she received the Prémio Carreira from the Portuguese Society of Writers ( Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores (SPA) ) in November 2009 .

Web links

• TVI 24: Morreu a escritora Matilde Rosa Araújo. Dedicou grande parte da sua actividade à literatura para crianças (6 July 2010)