Nilza Amaral

by Nicola Warwick

Photo of Nilza Amaral. Nilza Amaral is a vibrant and exotic writer of fiction. She claims to be "an old woman around 60." Don't believe a word of it! This is a woman with a lively, warm personality who is very young at heart. Nilza writes, she says, to keep herself young. Long may it continue.

Nilza is a brave writer who dares to express herself. Meet Nilza for yourself when you read her deliciously evocative responses in the interview. Responses which are clearly from the very depths of her heart. Olavo Bilac was an early inspiration who sparked Nilza's passion and her already romantic nature. A huge fan of Shakespeare, Rosamond Lehmann, T.S. Eliot and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nilza first wrote in secret as Zanil Lamar, already a daring writer.

Nilza's stories and novels remained hidden until her children were grown up. A Balada de Estoica received rave reviews in a competition. Since then her work has been awarded a whole host of prizes including a first prize for Os terrigenos (Concurso Vertente/Senac), the same for The Day of the She-wolves (Fiction 84) and another first prize for The Waves That Come and Go. A Balada de Estoica has also been used as a study text for the Feminine Literature course at Boulder University, Colorado. In 1998, Nilza was elected to be one of 29 directors of the Brazilian Association of Writers.

Nilza now lives in São Paulo. As well as being a novelist, Nilza originally graduated as an English language and Brazilian/Portuguese literature teacher. She went on to teach in private and public schools before indulging her passion as a writer. It has been a great pleasure for me to interview and e-mail Nilza. I look forward to the time when her writing is available in English. In the meantime, I'm working hard to improve my Portuguese.

Related Links:

The Importance of Being Female, by Nilza Amaral
Article written for Brazil Magazine.

Author's Web Site

E-mail the author.

Nicola Warwick is the author of life's little luxuries. She lives in Manchester in the North West of the UK. Nicola's articles have been published in various writing, computing, and electronics magazines. Read more about her here.

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