Introducing... Natalia Borges Polesso
‘Introducing…’s is our online interview series to introduce you to some of the amazing authors we’re working with and the brilliant books they have coming up!
For the third instalment of our series we have award-winning Brazilian short story writer Natalia Borges Polesso, author of the sublime collection Amora, recently hailed in The Observer for its ‘nuanced snapshots of heartbreak, tenderness, embarrassment, and desire.’
“Polesso’s writing is brisk and fresh, and she captures the bleak human comedy of the myriad ways we mess up when it comes to matters of the heart.”
— The Observer, 25.05.20
We recently caught up with Natalia to chat about translated literature, her experience of the pandemic, and the writing process of Amora…
Photograph: Laine Barcarol
Welcome! To start with, could you tell us a little bit about yourself…
Thanks! Well, I am a writer and a translator. I’m Brazilian and I live in Brazil, to be more precise, I live in Caxias do Sul, which is a rather small city in the south. I have a PhD in Literature and I am also a researcher, so my life is pretty much all about literature and writing. Although I do enjoy sports and to work out. I like to write stories in which lesbian women are the main characters. These stories are not always about love or sexuality, but my characters are there out in their fictional world, running arrows, doing silly stuff. I like to write about “minor” things, about family, about having ugly toe nails.
Amora is out 19th May. In your own words, could you give us an overview of the book?
Amora depicts lesbian protagonists of various ages and social backgrounds across a series of ordinary and extraordinary situations. Although, Amora (which literally means blackberry, also carries a pun, because Amor means love in Portuguese and Amor is a masculine noun – yeah, go figure – so when you add this final “a” you turn it into a feminine noun) is not so much a book of love stories as it is a book showcasing multiple forms of affection. It is a queer book, it is about a child curiosity, it is about growing old together, as well as other scenarios rarely featured in mainstream Brazilian literature. My concern has always been to present lesbian protagonists in different contexts, not necessarily romantic ones, to move them beyond love in order to reveal their complexities and nuances in everyday circumstances. Amora was born not out of my references but out of their absence in my journey as a reader
What was your inspiration for the book?/Why did you decide to write a book about…
Amora was a book I thought of because I could not find any lesbians as main characters in literature, at least not the way I would like to see them. However, one of my inspirations is Caio Fernando Abreu, a Brazilian gay writer, who wrote very poetic and imagetic stories and novels featuring gay characters. His stories are so sensitive, so deep, I cherish them very much.
How did you find the writing process? Do you work to a set schedule?
I do a lot of things at the same time. I wrote Amora, while taking my PhD (LOL). That was kind of crazy. I do like to write in the morning. I am totally a morning person. Nights are for sleeping, sometimes talking and drinking. I wake up really early, like 5.30AM or 6AM. Then I like to make myself a cup of coffee and try to put some words on paper or on the screen. That’s how I work. But I multitask a lot. I mean, I have a house, three jobs, a wife, two cats, family, hobbies, social media accounts…
What are you most excited about for the launch of the book in English?
I am curious to know how people will read the book, if they will get the contexts in the stories (small towns in Brazil, women from several ages and social contexts) and if they will like the characters, if they will laugh and cry with these women and children. Hopefully they will. There is a lot of family context, my lesbians are rarely alone.
The pandemic has had a profound impact on people around the world. How has it been for you personally?
I guess some of us feel lonely and sad. I am trying to keep my mind sane, but it is hard. There are good days and bad days. Well, mostly bad days in Brazil, as the political situation is terrible and our unfortunate (and abominable) president clearly does not have a plan to handle this sanitary crisis and I most definitely do not think he has one for culture, for the artists, writers, musicians. He did not care about culture before. This is all very sad. So my relation with the world has already changed in the sense that I can’t think of a tomorrow. I used to like Bjork’s song ‘Possibly maybe’, which says “uncertainty excites me, babe, who knows what's going to happen? Lottery or car crash Or you'll join a cult” I know the song is about a relationship, but as for this specific part… uncertainty in this scenario is horrible. There is no lottery nor car crash, there is nothing, only incompetence, death and genocidal policies. Those who will come alive at the end of this will have to be really creative to imagine new ways to narrate the world, to narrate this mess. I am privileged and can work from home, I had to postpone some plans, it’s true, but nothing so serious. I am learning to be patient and to find hope. I’m trying.
And finally, can you tell us what you’ve got on your own reading list?
Sure! I am reading Virginia Woolf’s diaries, a bunch of lesbian Brazilian authors, such as Cidinha da Silva, Luciany Aparecida and Tatiana Nascimento. Also, I am reading poetry. I open books randomly and read as if they worked as oracles. It is interesting.
