Azevedo, Kathleen de

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Azevedo, Kathleen de

(Kathleen de Azevedo Feinblum)

PERSONAL:

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; married Lewis Campbell (a theatre director). Education: San Francisco State University, B.A.; University of Washington, M.F.A. Hobbies and other interests: Hiking, traveling, and reading and translating poetry.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Francisco, CA. Office— Language Arts Department, Skyline College, 3300 College Dr., San Bruno, CA 94066-1698. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER:

Educator and writer. Skyline College, San Bruno, CA, English teacher, c. 1991—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Stanford University's Center of Latin American Studies research grant.

WRITINGS:

Samba Dreamers (novel), University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2006.

Contributor to The Best American Poetry: 1992, edited by David Lehman and Charles Simic, Collier Books (New York, NY), 1992; contributor to periodicals, including Los Angeles Times, Américas, Boston Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Greensboro Review, Cream City Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Gulf Coast, Tampa Review and Green Mountains Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her first novel, Samba Dreamers, Kathleen de Azevedo tells the story of Jose Francisco Verguerio Silva, who flees Brazil after being a political prisoner and begins a new identity as Joe Silva. Working as a dishwasher, Silva marries waitress Sherri and has two children. On another job as a tour bus driver, he meets the daughter of entertainer Carmen Socorro, based on the real-life performer Carmen Miranda. Rosea Socorro is an ex-con who burned down her former husband's house and is still angry at the movie industry for the way it used her mother. Before long, Silva and Socorro are having an affair that leads to death. "She blends the mythos of Hollywood and Brazil while populating her narrative with Amazon warriors, a boy who is part bird, conniving movie producers and many other odd and grotesque characters," wrote Daniel A. Olivas in the El Paso Times. Olivas went on to call the novel "a dark, fantastical and, indeed, brilliant cautionary tale." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "the author creates a world through the strange intersection of Hollywood fantasy and real-world cultural exchange." Writing in the Tuscon Citizen, Larry Cox noted the "richly drawn characters and … imaginative plot."

The author told CA: "I have always written in some form: plays, poetry, prose, but I never took writing seriously until I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. After reading Marquez, I realized that Latinos could write brilliantly. This gave me ‘permission’ and inspiration to follow suit. I am dedicated to presenting Brazil as the complex and beautiful culture it is. Many view Brazil as a ‘playboy nation’ of corruption and carnival hedonism. Yes, the people, the music and scenery are staggeringly beautiful and sensual, and the corruption and poverty are staggering as well. But Brazil also has a complicated history, its own artistry and a troubled and turbulent soul worthy of literature."