Judite Canha Fernandes (part 1): “To make a living from writing you have to cross a curtain of fear, in a commitment only comparable to love”
Judite Canha Fernandes has worked on tuna fishing boats and squid fishing for a long time. This is despite her being quite seasick. These are just some of the thousand and one stories she has to tell in the open sea of her memory.
Poet, writer and playwright, Judite Canha Fernandes was born in the early 70s in a “island in the shape of a dog sitting with its head tilted to peer into the enigma of the water†, as Herberto Helder described the island of Madeira.
At the age of 8, Judite moved to São Miguel, in the Azores. And, throughout her life, she also lived on four different islands, at least two years on each one.
His professional life is told like a vinyl album, with a side A and a side B, of different recordings.
Side B includes the PhD in Information Sciences, the degree in Aquatic Science and the postgraduate degree in Library and Archive. Along the way, she was a manager of international projects, awarded by the European Commission, creator of the CIPA information center, guest professor at the University of the Azores, and guest speaker at lectures in various regions of the world. A feminist, between 2011 and 2016, she was Europe’s representative on the International Committee of the World March of Women.
And it was in 2015 when Judite Canha Fernandes turned the record of her life to the A side: She left her previous professional career to dedicate herself entirely and forever to writing, a desire she had been putting off since childhood. Since then, she has published poetry, fiction (novels and short stories) and plays and has become one of the new voices in Portuguese literature to keep an eye on.
What led you to postpone a clear vocation for literature for so long? Until the age of 40, did you feel like an island with no chance of surpassing a certain horizon? You are asked in the first part of this podcast.
With her debut novel “Um Passo para Sul†(Gradiva, 2019, 2ªED 2020), Judite Canha Fernandes was distinguished with the Agustina Bessa-LuÃs Prize in 2018. The Jury considered this novel “with a far reaching deep human and social in which love, but also the terrible violence exercised against women, constitute the main pillars of the characters’ existential universe. With this same work, among other distinctions, Judite was a semi-finalist for the Oceanos Prize in 2020 and became part of the National Reading Plan 2020-2027
Also, his poetry book “The hardest thing about capitalism is finding the place to put the bombs†(Urutau, 2017, 2ªED 2021) was a semi-finalist in the Oceanos Prize in 2018; the short story “What time does it beat?†was an honorable mention in the Ferreira de Castro Literary Award and his book “Curtissimas†(Kazua, 2017) was awarded the national Tatu Short Story Award, in Brazil, also in 2018. His biography is made up of an endless number of scholarships and honorable mentions. How important are these awards, support and scholarships for someone who makes a living from writing? Are they oxygen balloons to keep going?
Also noteworthy is his book “A Lista da Mercearia†(Urutau, 2021) which was a special mention by the jury at the Ferreira de Castro Literary Award in 2021 and inspired the play – “Alice’s heart†by visual artist and performer Catarina Fernandes, as well as the performance and film “Can an artist be separated from her heart?†by Catarina Fernandes, directed by Renata Pires-Sola, presented in France and Portugal. And it was also the subject of an animated short by Luís Roque.
With books translated into several countries, the work by Judite Canha Fernandes has been the subject of research at several universities in Brazil, namely USP (University of São Paulo).
Judite says about herself that she is an exaggerated romantic – and that “this is her absolutely secret place.†Are love and passion the driving force of your life? Judite responds in this episode.
He says he has a profoundly slow pace and has suffered from anxiety since childhood. He would say that most of us move at a too fast pace, so often chasing nothing, or “tired of running in the opposite directionâ€, as Cazuza sang in “Time is not stopâ€. And slow time is often the most natural and fertile for ideas. And for a healthy life, by the way.
Judite shared that in the years she lived on the mountain, she could go weeks without seeing a soul. And it also does so in the city. She apparently lives peacefully with all these contradictions or, at least so far, has not split in half.
In the same way that he loved life for the 40 years it took him… to find the courage and decide to write and start from scratch… to dedicate himself to that alone. And now this life behind, that side B, seems like another life, in which Judite wasn’t Judite yet. “It was, but it wasn’t.†– she told me. Can someone be who they are not? – sang Sérgio Godinho.
As you know, the generic is signed by Márcia and has the collaboration of He had taken. The portraits are by João Carlos Santos. And the sound design of this podcast is by João Ribeiro.
The second part of this episode will be released this Saturday morning. Happy listening!
