The poet will be honored through a series of activities that include readings, book launches, and debates, workshops on writing, theater and lectures.
The inaugural Conference entitled ‘Eduardo White, the subversive poet’, marks the start of the Quelimane International Book Fair program.
By Henriqueta Merchio
Quelimane, Mozambique
The Quelimane International Book Fair will dedicate the three days of the event, 12, 13 and 14 August, to the Mozambican poet Eduardo White, honoring him through a series of activities that include readings, book launches, and debates, workshops on writing, theater and lectures.
In this way, the book fair pays tribute to the poet born in Quelimane on November 21, 1963. Eduardo Costley-White, is one of the poets linked to the foundation of the magazine Charrua, of the Association of Mozambican Writers (AEMO), which in the mid-1960s 1980s contributed to renewing the country’s literature. Eduardo White, considered “one of the most expressive names in Mozambican poetry” since the 1980s (CHAVES, 2005, p.163), published his first work in 1984. From then on, this writer stood out for his dense production, marked by for a creative work wrapped in thought-provoking themes such as love, travel, and the erotic.
Writers from different generations and literary geographies will be in Quelimane to witness the great literary festival, among those confirmed, the Angolans José Luís Mendonça and João Fernando André, Lino Mukuruza, Lo Chi, Timóteo Papel, Virgília Ferrão, Lucílio Manjate, António Hama Thay, Marcelo Mosse, Nelson Lineu (Mozambique), Paul Sezzie (Malawi), Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Egypt), Ayo Ayoola-Amale (Ghana), Nicole Cage-Florentiny (Martinique), Luis Luna (Spain), Carmen Troncoso Baeza (Chile), Daniel Quintero (Argentina), among others.
As in the previous edition, the secondary and higher education system and the municipal libraries of Quelimane will carry out readings and participate in different cultural activities, between the 12th and 14th of August, as well as the Quelimane Reading Club will also join the event, with readings of Eduardo White’s book and other Mozambican authors.
The Quelimane International Book Fair will take to the “reading space”, a writing workshop to be promoted by the writer Lucílio Manjate, with the participation of writers from the city of Quelimane. During the three days of the fair, an exhibition and book sale area will also be set up, with the presence of several publishers and bookstores.
Eduardo White is the author of several poetry books such as: Amar sobre o Índico (1984), Poemas da Ciência de Voar and Engenharia de Ser Ave (Caminho, 1992), Janela para Oriente (Caminho, 1999) or O Manual das Mãos (Campo das Letras), 2004).
In 2001, Eduardo White was considered the literary figure of the year in Mozambique, and three years later he received the José Craveirinha Award, awarded by AEMO to his book O Manual das Mãos. In 1992, he had already received the National Poetry Prize for Poems from the Science of Flying and the Engineering of Ser Ave.
In addition to poetry, he has also published novels, such as As Falas do Escorpião (2002), and other prose texts. Among his most recent books are O Homem a Sombra e a Flor and Some Letters from the Interior (2004), Até Amanhã Coração (2007), From the Yellow Lemons of the Phallus to the Red Oranges of the Vulva (2009), Nudos (2011), an anthology of his poetic work, O Libretto da Miséria (2012), A Mecânica Lunar and A Escrita Desassossegada (2012) and O Poeta Diarista e os Ascetas Desiluminados, his last book.
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