Maria Rosário Pedreira is a poet, novelist, children's writer and Editorial Director of Leya Editorial Group in Portugal. She has been writing poetry since she learned to read, but published her first book in 1996 – A Casa e o Cheiro dos Livros (The House and the Smell of Books). Three years earlier, she had published her novel Alguns homens, duas mulheres e eu A Few Men, Two Women and Me. Even earlier, he had begun writing a series of novels for children, O Clube das Chaves (The Key Club), published in 21 volumes, which was adapted into a television series. This was followed by another 19-volume seriesDetective Maravilhas), as well as other children's books and volumes of poetry. She began her publishing career in the late 1980s after she had worked as a teacher. At Leya, she heads the Portuguese fiction division. Committed to quality and innovation in both the literature she curates and the literature she writes, Maria Rosário Pedreira believes that poetry is able to provide great freedom.
You write poetry, children's and adult fiction and non-fiction. Your writing career can be traced through the books you have published. But how did your adventure as a reader begin?
I come from a family of readers. I had lots of books in the house and, as the youngest of four siblings, I would always see many of my family reading, starting with my grandparents' generation. Then, I was lucky enough to go to a school where I learned to read using a method called 'Cartilha Maternal', the maternal alphabet book, invented by the poet João de Deus, and I immediately fell in love with reading as soon as I could connect the first letters. I still remember the first text I read aloud on my own at school, without any help; unlike numbers and drawings, which I didn't feel much attraction for (maybe because I had no talent for arts and hated math), texts always fascinated me. At the school I was telling you about, on feast days, we recited poems and took part in read-aloud competitions. And my parents used to subscribe to children's and teenager’s magazines, which arrived monthly by post and where there were many illustrated stories to read.
Since 1996, when you won a poetry competition that led to the publication of your first volume, you published six books of poems, including a Poesia Reunidavolume. When have you started writing poems and how do you use your publisher’s eye in selecting the ones to be published?
I started writing as soon as I learned to read. At home, everyone was always talking very loudly all the time and it was also very hard to interrupt them... As there were so many noisy people, I, being the youngest, rarely got to say anything. I think I started writing in order to communicate. I used to write short poems to give to my parents on birthdays. They were impressed and encouraged me to keep going. However, I didn't publish my first book until I was 36, because, having written poetry from a young age, I couldn't tell if it was good quality or worth publishing. It wasn't until much later that someone convinced me to enter a competition for debut in poetry and I won (that's what convinced me in the end). As for how to identify what to publish, I think it's experience: we get it wrong, wrong again, wrong a little less... until one day we get it right! I generally look for innovation in language and structure, and I find it incredible how, after so many centuries of books being written, we still find texts that feel new.
Both your poems and your novel, Alguns homens, duas mulheres e eu (Some men, two women and I) have a deep autobiographical spine. How much of yourself do you actually enfold in your fiction or poetical discourse?
In a manner of speaking, for me writing is primarily a form of therapy... I write poems mainly so I can get the ugly and sad things out of myself. I try to turn what bothers me into something more beautiful (for myself and others). And then I do the refining work, naturally. But not everything that seems autobiographical is really autobiographical: the underlying feeling of the poem, yes, is genuine; but I can invent a different storyline, narrative, or characters that speak to what I'm interested in. In my third book, when I wanted to write about the grief of a great loss, I wrote about a couple who lose a child. I had never had children, but for me, the loss I had suffered was so devastating that the best comparison I could find was the death of a child.
Your 21-volume series for children O Clube das Chaves (The Key Club), written together with Maria Teresa Maia Gonzalez was adapted into a TV series by Skylight and broadcasted by TVI and Disney Channel. How have you got in touch with the production company, have you participated in the production and how was this experience?
In the 90s, many audiovisual adaptations of children's book series began to be made in Portugal. A movie production company contacted the publisher of O Clube das Chaves, saying that they would be interested in an adaptation based on our collection of titles, and we had several meetings to discuss the terms of this adaptation. Later we also read all the scripts in detail. I realized that the television language was based on rules that didn't entirely correspond to the written stories: lots of action, romantic scenes, scenes of danger, moral lessons... But the writers there lacked the imagination to fulfill these requirements when they couldn't find them in the book, and they happened to make two or three episodes in which the dangerous scenes were practically identical (the characters being chased by a drunk/insane man or locked in a dark place from which they couldn't get out). They repeated the same situations a lot and needed help with stories invented especially for the show. Then, outrageously, there were spelling mistakes, which was totally unacceptable, because the actors were children and couldn't be given scripts that weren't spelled correctly. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that we readers always come to: the books were better than the filmed episodes...
Your portfolio includes other books for children, among which Detective Maravilhas a 19-volume series. Actually, you debuted with this genre, although you started writing poetry long before. Do you have special narrative tools, a different approach or rhythm when you write books for kids in comparison with when you write adult fiction and nonfiction?
After finishing university I started working as a teacher - it wasn't until a few years later that I became an editor. It was just that I was sent to a school with classes of problem pupils, who had already lost several years and had fallen far behind in their learning. They were at an 11-12 year old level, but their ages were between 14-16. Textbooks and texts were too childish for them, so I decided, in order to attract them to reading, to start writing stories together with another teacher, a friend of mine who had actually been a classmate in middle school and who had the same problems. That's how I started writing children's books. Later, I participated in a national competition organized by a publishing house and received an offer for a complete series (O Clube das Chaves). It was nothing very literary, the aim was to attract readers; the strategy was to build a mystery and reveal the enigma at the end. Two families: one liberal, one conservative. Children and teenagers. Some troubled, others quiet students. And very simple, but neat language to reach all readers. The style was purposely neutral, so that in the books I wrote with Maria Teresa, you can't tell who was writing where - as each of us wrote half a book. In poetry I have my own brand, my own style, a way of writing that is recognizable as my own. Poetry gives the author great freedom. Children's books don't, they have to be designed for the reader.
You entered the Portuguese editorial world in 1987. What was the Portuguese book industry look like back then and which are the main changes that took place over the years?
I would need many pages to answer to this, first of all because, without computers and the internet, everything took a long time... But I think the main difference is that back then, the center of publishing was the author, the person who writes the books, and today it's the reader, the person who buys the books. Today, the owners of publishing houses seem to be more interested in making money than in educating, training and informing the public or changing the lives of those who read extraordinary and substantial works. I think that says it all. We’ve exchanged a mission-driven work to something called "profitability”.
You are now editorial director at Leya, the biggest editorial group in Portugal, taking care of the Portuguese fiction division. Which are the criteria according to which you select the authors you publish?
The criteria must first and foremost be quality, consistency, verisimilitude and, as I said earlier, innovation. The stuff that literature is made of is language and that's it, the same language we use when we ask for a coffee, when we buy an aspirin, when we insult someone for not stopping at a cross-walk, and so on... Often there are books that fulfill most of these criteria, yet after reading them to the end, they don't stay with us, we don't learn anything from them, while others shine from the first sentence. It's really hard to choose the wheat from the chaff, all the more so because nowadays chaff is highly valued and the author only needs to be a famous personality for the book to be successful... Another thing we have to consider is whether there are readers for the book we receive. It may be a good book, but it may be suitable for a very small number of people, an elite - in that case it's preferable not to waste the paper and just put it out in e-book version.
What means a bestseller for Leya Group in terms of copies sold? What about a bestselling Portuguese author?
First of all, Portugal is a very small country. And as we were illiterate for so long because of the dictatorship, there are few readers for quality literature. But, for example, in February this year we published a novel which is already in its ninth edition and has sold about 15,000 copies. So an average of 5,000 is already a success, because most print runs of literary titles by unknown authors are 1,500 copies, maybe a little more. A bestselling author is one who stays at the top for many weeks and sells well all the titles in his or her portfolio (25,000 copies, for example).
How is the situation of Portuguese literature being exported to other languages? Are there any tools the authors or the editors could use in this respect? I know some Portuguese institutions are offering support for translating and publishing Portuguese literature abroad through the LATEprogram. How helpful it is in exporting literature from Portugal?
More and more Portuguese authors are being translated into other languages. Of course it helps that the Directorate-General for Books offers grants for the translation of Portuguese authors abroad, as well as the contacts that publishers or authors make at book fairs and literary festivals. There are also many translators who take an interest in certain books, give them detailed and laudatory reviews and distribute them in their countries in search of publishers. Some of my poems were translated in Spain a few years ago thanks to a very active translator. It can also happen that two writers from different countries meet at a festival and then submit a book to each other's publishers. But if none of this happens, it is essential to have a translated sample (usually in English) so that foreign publishers can have direct access to the author's style. Since almost nobody knows Portuguese in foreign publishing houses, it's harder to get translation contracts. And because the person who sells the rights is not the publisher but a "salesman", it often happens that this person doesn't know the book 100%, only a synopsis, and then fails to interest colleagues enough to sell it. Even so, we have more translated authors today than twenty years ago, perhaps because with social networks, writers are more visible and communicate more with the public.
Some of your poems are accompanying the fado tunes of Portugal’s famous singers. What song would best fit as a soundtrack for your literary and professional career so far?
I do not consider the lyrics I write for songs and fados to be poetry. I see them as much less edited texts than a poem, because they have to be understood while being performed by the singers, so they have to be simple and direct. If the song comes at the end and the listeners don't understand it, it's a failure! I wouldn't really know what to say about the soundtrack of my career, but a song that represents me could be "Olhos nos olhos" (Eyes in the eyes) by the Brazilian musician and singer Chico Buarque de Holanda. When people look into each other's eyes, they better understand what the other person is thinking and feeling; on the other hand, it is a song about someone who, despite all the adversity and defeat, has not let down and is still following his dream. All publishers have their failures, of course, but they don't give up. I feel the same way.
[The interview with Maria Rosário Pedreira was conducted on the occasion of Portugal's participation as guest of honor at Bookfest. The interview was translated from Portuguese into Romanian by Simina Popa.]
[Photos: Facebook page Portugalia, invitat de onoare la Bookfest 2025.]
