Profile

Jurist, diplomat, essayist, translator, and poet. Geraldo Cavalcanti studied Legal and Social Sciences at the Faculty of Law of Recife, Brazil (1951). As a diplomat, he was posted to the Brazilian consulates in Geneva and Hong Kong and to the embassies in Washington, Moscow, Mexico City, and Bonn. He served as Brazil’s Ambassador to UNESCO and to the European Union. He was Secretary-General of the Latin Union and President of the Inter-American Indigenous Council.

He is a Full Member of the Mexican Academy of International Law and a Member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, of which he was President (2014–2015). Among his published works are: O Mandiocal de Verdes Mãos (1964), Poesia Reunida (1998), Memórias de um Tradutor de Poesia (2006), and Encontro em Ouro Preto (2007).

He received several major literary awards, including the Premio Internazionale Eugenio Montale (1998), the Paulo Rónai Prize from the National Library Foundation of Rio de Janeiro (1999), and the Fernando Pessoa Prize from the Brazilian Writers’ Union (2000). Among the numerous foreign honors he has received, he was decorated as Grande-Oficial of the Ordem do Infante D. Henrique (1975) and of the Ordem Militar de Cristo (1977).