We’re thrilled to announce that And Other Stories will be publishing three works of fiction by the influential Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo, after publisher Stefan Tobler acquired World English Rights from Mariana Warth from Pallas Editora for Becos da memória [Backstreets of Memory], Canção para ninar menino grande [Lullaby for a Grown Boy], and Olhos D’Água [Eyes of Water]. [All English titles subject to change.]
This announcement follows Evaristo’s recent inclusion in the Service95 Manifesto Library that is currently part of the Livraria Lello bookshop in Porto, and press interest following Evaristo’s meeting with Bernardine Evaristo in Rio, Brazil.
Publisher Stefan Tobler on the acquisition:
Conceição Evaristo is a towering figure in Brazilian letters. What an honour it is for And Other Stories to publish her. There’s a very special timbre to her writing that is completely original to her. And she gives us an alternative to the dominant paradigms in contemporary Western literature. We are led to so many voices and lives in her fiction that is not auto- but communal.
Editor Tara Tobler on the acquisition:
There aren’t many sentences in an Evaristo book that don’t sound like they could be heard, or overheard, in the neighbourhood of her childhood. On the surface her writing is conversational, local even. But take apart any given phrase and you’ll see it’s also packed with idioms of extraordinary metaphorical potency, arranged so beautifully and flowing so naturally within speech and thought that they could almost go unnoticed, until one of them finally breaks ground – and then the whole text wells up with streams of such ancient and nourishing depth that you’ll cry on the spot. Evaristo shows her readers how to revel in the poetry that was raging all along underneath these so-called ordinary lives. She gives us elders who speak humbly yet with the force of prophets; she gives us children bearing the pains of their ancestors in their chests, and in their mischief. Everything she gives, she gives with enormous dignity, tenderness, and love. She bears witness in her fiction in the most sacred of ways. I’m completely completely addicted to this writer – and if you ask me she deserves the Nobel.
Mariana Warth on the acquisition:
Conceição Evaristo is the most important living Brazilian Black writer in the contemporary world. I’m sure the British and American readers will be touched by her literature as much as the Brazilians are. She is our treasure and now you’ll be able to feel the power of her words and understand why she is a celebrated author around the world.
About Becos da memória: First published in Brazil in 2006, Becos da memória redefined the landscape of Afro-Brazilian literature. Rooted in her groundbreaking concept of escrevivência – the intricate blurring of lived experience and collective memory – Becos da memória tenderly documents a neighbourhood that has been forced to endure poverty and prejudice, yet sustains itself with profound resilience and love. To this day, it stands as a fierce political act, a paean to Black lives, and the birthplace of a narrative movement still striving to reshape the world.
Becos da memória will be translated by Annie McDermott.
About Canção para ninar menino grande:
Through the stories of the women who meet Fio Jasmim, the acclaimed Conceição Evaristo masterfully discusses the contradictions and complexities surrounding Black masculinity and its effects on relationships with Black women. At the same time, this novel is a tribute to love from a perspective rarely seen in Brazilian literature.
About Olhos D’Água:
In Olhos d’Água, Conceição Evaristo turns her lens to the impact of poverty and urban violence in the Afro-Brazilian population. Unsentimental, poetic, and textured, these short stories present a remarkable gallery of women – or perhaps a remarkable gallery of one woman from many angles – rendered in kaleidoscopic portrait.
About Conceição Evaristo:
Maria da Conceição Evaristo de Brito (born November 29, 1946) is a highly influential Brazilian linguist and writer whose prolific career spans both academia and postmodern literature. Born into a poor, large family in a Belo Horizonte favela, she worked as a domestic servant to fund her teacher training before earning a degree in Portuguese and Literature from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), followed by a Master’s from PUC-Rio and a PhD in Comparative Literature from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF). Her critically acclaimed novels, poetry, short stories, and essays—including Ponciá Vicêncio, Becos da Memória, Canção para Ninar Menino Grande, and the Jabuti Award-winning Olhos d’Água—explore the intersections of racism, social inequality, and identity. Celebrated with multiple honorary doctorates, a 2026 Rio Carnival parade tribute by the Império Serrano samba school, and the prestigious Juca Pato Intellectual of the Year award, she currently occupies Chair 40 of the Academy of Letters of Minas Gerais and remains a prominent figure on the international literary stage.
As both a researcher and author, Evaristo famously coined the foundational literary and theoretical concept of “Escrevivência”—a portmanteau merging escrever (to write) and vivência (lived experience). This practice challenges traditional, elite white representations in Brazilian literature by centering the historical, social, and affective realities of Black Brazilian women, rooted in ancestral connection, oral history, and collective memory. Her work intentionally bridges the pain of historical bondage with the assertion of Black subjects as active creators of their own language and knowledge. This framework has deeply reshaped contemporary Afro-Brazilian studies, Black feminism, and autobiographical research, cementing her legacy as a pillar of African diasporic literature and cultural resistance in the twenty-first century
Photo credit: Richner Allan