Profile

Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte, poet, novelist, columnist, and civic activist. He lived in Portugal until adulthood and later went into exile, first in Paris and then in Algiers, returning in 1974.

His poetry and civic engagement are inseparable, both before and after 25 April 1974. Praça da Canção (1965) and O Canto e as Armas (1967) marked the beginning of a long poetic career, consistently linked to his civic and political ideals and resistance to dictatorship—a career that began in 1965 and continues to this day.

Among his numerous works, in addition to these two, his poetry includes Um Barco para Ítaca (1971), Babilónia (1983), Chegar Aqui (1984), Com que Pena – Vinte Poemas para Camões (1992), and Livro do Português Errante (2001), among more than twenty other titles. His literary contributions also extend to seven works of fiction, including Rafael (2003), Alma (1995), and Jornada de África (1989), as well as three children’s books and various essays, chronicles, and memoirs, the latest being Memórias Minhas (2024).

He has received multiple national and international honours, including the Ordem da Liberdade and the Ordem de Camões, as well as numerous literary awards, such as the Prémio Camões (2017), the Prémio Vida Literária (2016), the Prémio Pessoa (1999), and the Prémio D. Dinis (2008), among many others.

His name has been given to a chair at the University of Padua, Italy.