Συνέντευξη από τον φίλο ποιητή Alvaro Maio. Απο την Πορτογαλία με αγάπη και μουσική…..
“Right now I have a new book of poetry ready to be released and I’m trying to finish a novel in which I hope to make it a great book capable of becoming a best-seller.”
Do you remember writing your first words of poetry? When was it. Please tell us more about it. My first structured poem was the lyrics of a little song. I composed when I was 8 years old and which I sang with my two brothers, having a court for each of them to sing. It was titled “We are the 3 little brothers”
Did you have any early influences/inspirations? My mother was my great source of inspiration because, in addition to declaiming poetry very well, she challenged me to read and write and my first more complex poem would be dedicated to my mother on Mother’s Day and would become part of mine first book of solo poems.
What/who started you writing poetry? The first poems I wrote were blocks for songs that I started composing very early on, but soon I also wrote some short stories, with one of them winning my first literary prize when I was just 9 years old.
Does your background / heritage influence your writing? Please explain. Although my first area of school education had nothing to do with literature at the age of thirty. I graduated in Journalism and newspapers and radio became my professional occupation, and I started to write very regularly on all topics and intensively, then poetry emerged as a way of breathing.
What subjects mostly inspires you to write? Why? Sadness, pain and even death exert a certain fascination on my writing and society and its emotions and difficulties as well as the relationships between humans and environmental concerns inspire much of what I write and sing. Perhaps because my education where Scouting was important awakened my senses to all these causes.
Do you remember your first ever published work? Where, what was it? When? Tell me how you felt seeing your words in print. My first published work was a short story that would win a national newspaper’s literary competition when I was just 9 years old and competed with adult and senior writers. It was a huge happiness and surprise for the Jury who hadn’t realized that the award-winning writer was a child.
What publication are you most proud to have your work published in, why? My publication that I’m most proud of is a book that mixes theater, poetry and romance and tells the story of about a thousand years of the land where I was born in a dialogue between grandfather and granddaughter and ended up winning one of the most important literary awards in Portugal.
Do you have a favourite genre of poetry? I like to write poetry with rhymes but although I don’t always do it, my poetry still has great musicality. Those who read it say that my poems can all be song.
Why? Tell me more about it. Usually my poems respect a certain metric that provokes in them even in reading a rhythm that easily comes to life in musical accompaniment. Themes also help as normally the way I use words and style figures as metaphors create and create emotions that portray feelings.
What are your future plans as a writer/poet? Continue writing and editing poetry and prose, as well as promoting events that promote writers and books, as well as participating in Literary Festivals.
What projects are you working on and why? Right now I have a new book of poetry ready to be released and I’m trying to finish a novel in which I hope to make it a great book capable of becoming a best-seller.
A phrase that you like and inspired you. “After seeing that reason assists you, move forward”. Written by David Crockett and has inspired me for over 55 years.
Bio: Álvaro Maio was born in Portugal in 1960. Journalist for several radio stations and national periodicals.
Only 9 years old then, he received the 1st Literary Award for the poem “My 1st journey in the sun” in Mozambique in November 1969.
Published:
-“Fragments” poetry 2013
-“Más de mi…” poetry 2016
-“Pilgrim of mi…” poetry 2019
-“Ala Ala Arriba!” soap opera 2020
-co-author of several Portuguese and international anthologies
-translated to 7 languages
-CD with 12 songs “Poeta da Vida” 2016
-In 2014 he won the Literary Prize Poets da Ria (poetry) with the poem “Mujeres, mujeres” [“Women, women”]
-He also won Dr Luís Raínha Literary Prize / Correntes D’Escritas 2020 for the book “¡Ala Ala Arriba!”
-And also in 2020 he won the Cesar Vallejo Award for Artistic Excellence as Singer-author
-He won the ÁGUILA de ORO Award for Literary Excellence (in 2021)
-In 2021 named Intercontinental President of UHE Lusofonia [Unión Hispanomundial de Escritores]
