Rutgers University in Newark Will Host Two Award-Winning Portuguese-Language Writers on Sept. 15

(Newark, N.J., Aug. 15, 2008) --   The highly acclaimed Portuguese-language authors José Eduardo Agualusa and José Luís Peixoto will be on the campus of Rutgers University in Newark on Sept. 15 to read selections from new U.S. translations of their award-winning novels. A book-signing and reception will follow. The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 4 p.m. Sept. 15, in the Paul Robeson Gallery, Paul Robeson Campus Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.                                     

The event will mark the first U.S. appearance of Angolan-born Agualusa, author of The Book of Chameleons – published by Simon & Schuster – the 2007 winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Born in Huambo, Angola, in 1960, he is one of the leading young literary voices emerging from that country and from the Portuguese language today. He has published seven novels, including Creole, which was a bestseller in Portugal and Brazil and was awarded the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature. The Book of Chameleons won The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2007 and is his first book published in the United States.

Agualusa divides his time between Angola, Brazil and  Portugal.

Jose Eduardo Agualusa

Peixoto, a Portuguese native, is the winner of the Jose Saramago Literary Award; he will read from The Implacable Order of Things.  Peixoto, three-time winner of the Jovens Criadores Prize and winner of the 2001 José Saramago Literary Award, is considered Portugal’s most acclaimed young novelist. The Implacable Order Of Things has been published in 15 different countries, but the new book from Doubleday marks the first translation in English. Born in 1974 in the Portuguese region of Alentejo, he graduated from the Jose Universidade Nova de Lisboa with degrees in English and German literature. He writes poetry, plays, and novels.

The Sept. 15 program is sponsored by the Rutgers-Newark Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies Program, the R-N Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, the R-N Office of the Chancellor and the Instituto Camões.

Jose Luis Peixoto

The Paul Robeson Campus Center is wheelchair-accessible, as is the Rutgers-Newark campus. Rutgers‑Newark can be reached by New Jersey Transit buses and trains, the PATH train and Amtrak from New York City, and by Newark Light Rail. Metered parking is available on University Avenue and at Rutgers‑Newark's public parking garage, at 200 University Ave.  Printable campus maps and driving directions are available online at: http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/maps/index.php