First Black woman elected to Brazil's Academy of Letters ^{CEFR B2}

On July 10 Ana Maria Gonçalves, a 55-year-old novelist from Minas Gerais, was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters (Academia Brasileira de Letras, ABL), becoming the first Black woman in the Academy's 128-year history. The election drew attention because the ABL, founded in 1897, has long been criticised for not reflecting Brazil's racial and gender diversity despite the country being majority women and having a large population who self-identify as Afro-descendants. Members are often called 'immortals' because membership is for life.

Only 13 women have been elected over the Academy's history; the first was Rachel de Queiroz in 1977, one year after a prohibition on women members ended. Gonçalves joins five other current women members and succeeds grammarian Evanildo Bechara, who died in May. In 2018 Conceição Evaristo nearly won a seat, but filmmaker Cacá Diegues was elected instead.

ABL president Merval Pereira said Gonçalves's appointment helps demonstrate the Academy's aim to increase representation by gender and race. Gonçalves said she hopes not to be the only Black woman there and that, beyond representation, it is important to create presence; she also expressed interest in working institutionally for books in a country where readers are being lost.

Gonçalves is best known for the 951-page novel Um defeito de cor, first published in 2006 after five years of research and writing. The book, which the author has called a 'romanced true story', tells the life of Kehinde, an African girl from the kingdom of Dahomey who was captured at age eight and trafficked to Brazil as an enslaved person. The novel mixes suffering, love, religiosity and the search for freedom; it sold over 150,000 copies, reached its 41st reprinting and in 2024 inspired the Portela samba school parade theme. The character is said to be based on Luísa Mahin, who is believed to have taken part in uprisings such as the Malês Revolt in Bahia in 1835 and to have been the mother of the abolitionist Luiz Gama.