Brazilian writer and feminist Lygia Fagundes Telles died at 98

PARIS;FRANCE - MARCH 24: Brazilian author Lygia Fagundes Telles poses while in Paris,France during a book fair on the 24th of March 1998. (Photo by Ulf Andersen/Getty Images)

Brazilian writer and feminist Lygia Fagundes Telles, winner of the main prizes for Portuguese-language literature, died this Sunday at the age of 98 in her residence in Sao Paulo due to natural causes, according to literary sources.

The São Paulo Academy of Letters and its literary agent Lucia Riff confirmed the death of the writer, who was part of a generation of Brazilian women who stood out for her literary work and activism, such as Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) and Nélida Piñón (1937), among others.

In 2005, Fagundes Telles won the Camoes Prize, considered the greatest for literature in the Portuguese language, and four times (1966, 1974, 1996 and 2001) was awarded the Jabutí, the main prize awarded to Brazilian writers.

In 1985, the São Paulo-born writer became the third woman to join the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL) in recognition of her work until then, where titles such as “Antes do baile verde” (1970), “As meninas” (1973) and her consecrated “Ciranda de pedra” (1954) stand out.

The author of “O jardim selvagem” (1965) also identified herself, in her works, with the Brazilian reality of the time, mainly during the military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1964 and 1985 and the regime's torture was addressed in “As meninas”.

A lawyer by training and retired as a social security attorney in the state of São Paulo, the author incorporated in her writings topics considered “taboos”, including homosexuality and female sexual life in “Ciranda de Pedra”, also presented to the public as a soap opera.

The works of Fagundes Telles were translated into English, Spanish, German, Italian, Polish, Czech and French, the language with which he received recognition and distinctions in France.

The governor of Sao Paulo, Rodrigo García, decreed official three-day mourning for the death of the renowned writer, whom he referred to as “the great lady of Brazilian literature”, while the São Paulo Academy of Letters defined her as “patriot, democrat and legend of life”.

(With information from EFE)

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