Author
Truduá Dorrico
Truduá Dorrico
Trudruá Dorrico is from the Makuxi people. She is a writer, artist and researcher in Indigenous literature. She has published several books, such as Originárias: uma antologia feminina de literatura indígena (Companhia das Letrinhas, 2023) and Tempo de retomada (Autêntica, 2025). She has a PhD in literary theory from PUC/RS, with extended research at UFRR.
Translator
Taty Guedes
Taty Guedes
Taty Guedes has worked as translator and reviewer for over 25 years, and is an avid reader, literature lover, book hoarder. Tatiana was born in São Paulo and now lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil, after a long stint in Ireland and a short one in the USA.
Original language
Makuxi
Original language
Portuguese
Publishing status
Translation extract
About the book
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About the book
About
Makunaimã’s beautiful words combines poetry, stories, and other writings in Brazilian Portuguese and Makuxi that challenge us to imagine and recognise a world free of the borders and methods of occupation. The Makuxi people’s ancestral territory extends across Brazil, Guiana and Venezuela. For Dorrico, the collection is reunion with the Makuxi language of her ancestors, after generations were forced to ‘forget’ it in order to be accepted in society. Her poetic voice comes from that world, which is large, free, ancestral, older than names and maps.
What our readers say
Makunaimã’s beautiful words is not a book of poems, but tales and myths woven in nature, told through a voice that echoes a myriad of storytellers that came before her. It is an authentic and beautiful testimony that reflects the culture and cosmogony of the Makuxi, an indigenous people of South America. The Makuxi words, and the delicacy and depth of the prose, are enrapturing and will surely transport you to another time and space. The sample translation was able to convey this same delicacy, without sacrificing the content or tone. The translator revealed an acute cultural awareness and linguistic sensitivity. Her work was not only skilful but memorable.
– Ana Rita Mendes
Rights available
World English