IAS Book Launch: Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Short Fiction

Although Brazil is the largest Afro-descendant country outside of Africa, the literature produced by Black Brazilians is mostly unknown both in Brazil and abroad. There is a growing worldwide demand for Afrodescendant literature and a demand for decolonial practices and content, especially within Lusophone literature and literature across the Americas. Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Short Fiction emerges from a UCL-sponsored collaborative translation project, bridging Afro-Brazilian literature with a global audience to respond to the worldwide call for Afrodiasporic narratives. This unique compilation of 21 short stories includes both established and emerging Afro-Brazilian voices.

Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Short Fiction is a bilingual anthology edited by Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva (UCL), Julio Ludemir (Flup - Literary Festival of the Peripheries) and Maria Aparecida Andrade Salgueiro (Rio de Janeiro State University) and is fostering cross-cultural understanding and affirming the legitimacy of pretoguês as a literary language. The texts are presented with three insightful contributions by the editors. The introductions not only contextualise the short stories, but also engage in theoretical debates, shedding light on the role of literary translation in language teaching and the impact of the Literary Festival of the Peripheries in forming a new generation of Black Brazilian writers.

Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Short Fiction is published by UCL Press.
Read the first page here, on Think Pieces.

For the launch event, the editors, authors and translators will join in person and online to discuss their contributions and creative processes. We will welcome Ana Cláudia Suriani da Silva (UCL), Andrew Mcdougall (PELTA), Christina Baum (City Lit and Birkbeck), Elton Uliana (PELTA), Felipe Fanuel Xavier Rodrigues (Rio de Janeiro State University), Maria Aparecida Andrade Salgueiro (Rio de Janeiro State University), and Paulo Dutra (The University of New Mexico).