Natália Correia was one of the most prominent voices of Portuguese literature and culture in the second half of the 20th century. Poetess, novelist, essayist, fiction translator, editor, journalist, and politician, Natália Correia was born in Fajã de Baixo, on São Miguel Island, on 13th September 1923.
At the age of eleven, her father emigrated to Brazil, and she moved to Lisbon with her mother and sister. Contacting with great names of the Portuguese intellectuality, like António Sérgio, Cruzeiro Seixas, David Mourão-Ferreira, Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, José-Augusto França, Luiz Pacheco, Eugénio de Andrade, and Ary dos Santos.
She started in literature in 1946, with the publication of the children’s book “Grandes Aventuras de um Pequeno Herói”, and was the author of an intense literary work, in which she revealed a particular versatility, with incursions in medieval and baroque poetry and approaches to the Portuguese surrealist movement. Showing a strong connection to her native island, and to its greatest poet, Antero de Quental, she wrote the lyrics for the Azores Anthem. In 1991, she was acknowledged in the written press and, particularly, on television and was awarded the Grand Prize of Poetry of the Portuguese Writers’ Association, with the book “Sonetos Românticos”.
Lover of freedom, she was one of the visible faces of the anti-fascist opposition, having been sentenced to three years in prison, with a suspended sentence. After the advent of democracy she was particularly active, having been elected Member of Parliament, standing out in the safeguard of the cultural heritage and in the fight for the integration and emancipation of women in Portuguese society.
She was decorated with the Military Order of Sant’Iago da Espada in 1981 and with the Order of Liberty in 1991.
She died in Lisbon on 16th March 1993, being initially buried in the Prazeres Cemetery and transferred to her hometown in 2015. According to her testamentary dispositions, her literary estate is kept at the Public Library and Regional Archive of Ponta Delgada. The art collection, sculpture, and house contents are in the Carlos Machado Museum.