Dina Salústio (born 1941) is a Cape Verdean novelist, who is the first woman from the country to publish a novel, and the first writer from the country to have a novel translated to English.

Biography

Dina Salústio is the pseudonym of Bernardina Oliveira, who was born in 1941 in Santo Antão.[1] After training as a social worker, she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1] She has also worked in Portugal and Angola as a journalist, social worker and teacher.[2]

A prominent literary activist in Cabo Verde, she co-founded the Associação Escritores Cabo-Verdianos,[3] as well as two magazines, Mudjer and Ponto e Vírgula.[1] Her novel A Louca de Serrano was the first novel to be published by a Cabo Verdean woman.[4][5] Its translation, The Madwoman of Serrano by Jethro Soutar, is the first English translation of a novel from Cabo Verde.[4][5]

Awards

In 2020, the English translation of A Louca de Serrano was short-listed for The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.[4] In 2016, she was presented with a Rosalía de Castro Award for lifetime achievement by PEN Galicia (es).[6][7][8] In 1994 she was awarded the national prize for children's literature.[9]

Reception

Salústio's works, both creative and non-fiction, address issues relating to women's rights and Cabo Verdean society and centring female perspectives.[10][11] Her works are considered an important contribution to postcolonial literature of Cabo Verde.[12] She is also viewed as a writer who counters the masculine perspectives that can be prevalent in African literature.[13]

Selected works

Novels

  • A Louca de Serrano (The Madwoman of Serrano), 1998[14][15]
  • Filhas do Vento (Daughters of the Wind), 2009[16]
  • Veromar (See-the-sea), 2019[17]

Short stories

  • Mornas eram as noites (Warm were the Nights), 1994[18]
  • Filhos de Deus (God's Children), 2018[19]

Non-fiction

  • Violência contra as mulheres (Violence Against Women), 1994[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Biografia de Dina Salustio". www.ikuska.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  2. ^ "The Madwoman of Serrano by Dina Salústio : Our Books :: Dedalus Books, Publishers of Literary Fiction". www.dedalusbooks.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  3. ^ Lima-Neves, Terza A. Silva; Pilgrim, Aminah N. (2021-05-11). Cabo Verdean Women Writing Remembrance, Resistance, and Revolution: Kriolas Poderozas. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-7936-3490-0.
  4. ^ a b c "The Madwoman of Serrano by Dina Salústio : Our Books :: Dedalus Books, Publishers of Literary Fiction". www.dedalusbooks.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  5. ^ a b Soutar, Jethro (19 July 2017). "Translating Dina Salústio, Cape Verde's First Female Novelist". Brittle Paper.
  6. ^ "Grandes, Dina Salústio, Alex Susanna e Landa gañan os premios Rosalía de Castro". La Voz de Galicia (in Spanish). 2016-09-10. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  7. ^ "Dina Salústio : Our Authors & Translators :: Dedalus Books, Publishers of Literary Fiction". www.dedalusbooks.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  8. ^ "The Madwoman of Serrano". English Pen. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  9. ^ Infopédia. "Dina Salústio - Infopédia". Infopédia - Porto Editora (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  10. ^ "Bernardina Oliveira ( Dina Salústio) / Personalidades / Identidade / Início - CABO VERDE info". www.caboverde-info.com. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  11. ^ Arenas, Fernando (2011). Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence. U of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-6983-7.
  12. ^ Santos, Olímpia Maria dos (2018-09-28). "DINA SALÚSTIO: Mulher, Caboverdiana, Escritora". Episteme Transversalis (in Portuguese). 9 (2). ISSN 2236-2649.
  13. ^ George, Olakunle (2021-03-22). A Companion to African Literatures. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-05817-5.
  14. ^ Salústio, Dina (1998). A louca de Serrano (in Portuguese). Edições Spleen.
  15. ^ Salústio, Dina (2020-04-20). The Madwoman of Serrano. SCB Distributors. ISBN 978-1-912868-31-5.
  16. ^ Salústio, Dina (2009). Filhas do vento (in Portuguese). Instituto da Biblioteca Nacional e do Livro.
  17. ^ Salústio, Dina (2019). Veromar (in Portuguese). Rosa de Porcelana Editora. ISBN 978-989-8961-06-8.
  18. ^ Salústio, Dina (1994). Mornas eram as noites (in Brazilian Portuguese). Instituto Caboverdiano do Livro e do Disco.
  19. ^ Salústio, Dina (2018). Filhos de deus: contos e monólogos (in Portuguese). Biblioteca Nacional de Cabo Verde.
  20. ^ Salústio, Dina (1999). Violência contra as mulheres (in Portuguese). Instituto da Condição Feminina.