And Other Stories brings Brazilian author Conceição Evaristo’s works to the UK
And Other Stories has acquired three works of fiction by Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo, as yet unpublished in the UK.
Publisher Stefan Tobler acquired world English rights from Mariana Warth from Pallas Editora for Becos da memória [Backstreets of Memory], Canção para ninar menino grande [Lullaby for a Grown Boy], and Olhos D’Água [Eyes of Water]. All English titles are subject to change, the publisher notes.
Maria da Conceição Evaristo de Brito, born in 1946, is a Brazilian linguist and writer whose career spans both academia and postmodern literature. Born into a poor, large family in a Belo Horizonte favela, she worked as a domestic servant to fund her teacher training before earning a degree in Portuguese and Literature from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), followed by a master’s from PUC-Rio and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF).
Her novels, poetry, short stories, and essays – including Ponciá Vicêncio, Becos da Memória, Canção para Ninar Menino Grande and the Jabuti Award-winning Olhos d’Água – explore the intersections of racism, social inequality and identity. Celebrated with multiple honorary doctorates, a 2026 Rio Carnival parade tribute by the Império Serrano samba school and the Juca Pato Intellectual of the Year award, she currently occupies Chair 40 of the Academy of Letters of Minas Gerais.
As a researcher and author, Evaristo famously coined the foundational literary and theoretical concept of “Escrevivência” – a portmanteau merging escrever (to write) and vivência (lived experience). This practice challenges traditional, elite white representations in Brazilian literature by centring the historical, social and affective realities of Black Brazilian women, rooted in ancestral connection, oral history and collective memory.
Tobler said of the three-book acquisition: “Conceição Evaristo is a towering figure in Brazilian letters. What an honour it is for And Other Stories to publish her. There’s a very special timbre to her writing that is completely original to her. And she gives us an alternative to the dominant paradigms in contemporary Western literature. We are led to so many voices and lives in her fiction that is not auto but communal.”
Warth described Evaristo as “the most important living Brazilian Black writer in the contemporary world”, adding: “I’m sure the British and American readers will be touched by her literature as much as the Brazilians are. She is our treasure and now you’ll be able to feel the power of her words and understand why she is a celebrated author around the world.”
