paulo da costa won the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Canada and the Caribbean) and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize for his first collection, The Scent of a Lie (2002), containing twelve magic realist stories set in Portugal. Some of the same characters weave in and out of the stories so it becomes like a fragmented novel.

Freelance writer and translator paulo da costa was born in Luanda, Angola and raised in Vale de Cambra, Portugal. Since 1989 he has resided in Canada. He arrived in British Columbia in 2003. He has been an editor of filling Station magazine. His stories have been translated to Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian, and Portuguese.

MORE INFO:

While concluding his degree in Coimbra, Paolo da Costa left on a short holiday and never returned, travelling extensively around the globe and ending up living and working in four continents. He settled in Western Canada, first in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, then on Vancouver Island. His first book of fiction, The Scent of a Lie, received the 2003 Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada-Caribbean Region, the W. O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Prize and the Canongate Prize in Scotland for the title story.

In Portuguese he has published a collection of poetry, notas-de-rodapé (2005) and has received the ProVerbo prizes in fiction and poetry. His poetry and fiction have been published in literary magazines around the world and have been translated to Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Serbian, Slovenian and Portuguese. He has also published four original audio books: Twenty Poems (poetry), The Book of Catalogues (fiction), notas de rodapé (poesia), XX Poemas (poesia).

As a translator paulo has brought to the English-speaking readers a range of Portuguese poets including Nuno Júdice, Al Berto and Daniel Faria. To the Portuguese-speaking readers, and among others, he has translated the Canadian poets, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Gary Geddes, Patrick Lane and Marilyn Bowering. The Cartography of Being, Selected Poems of Nuno Júdice 1976-2005 (2012) is his latest book of translations.

CITY/TOWN: Manson's Landing

ARRIVAL IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: 2003

AWARDS: Best First Book, Canada & Caribbean Region of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2003, The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize 2002, Canongate Prize for Short-Fiction 2001

Anthologies:

Original Sins - UK Canongate, 2001.
TransLit - Volume V - Maureen Ranson. ed: Red Deer Press, 2001.
Writing On Air - David Rothenberg and Wandee Pryor eds: MIT Press, 2003.

BOOKS:

The Scent of a Lie - short stories: Victoria, BC: Ekstasis Editions, 2002. 1-894800-07-9
notas de rodapé (Lisbon 2005)
The Green and Purple Skin of the World (Freehand 2013) $21.95). 978-1-55481-139-7
Beyond Bullfights and Ice Hockey Essays on Identity, Culture and Writing Language (2015)

ALSO:

The Cartography of Being, (poetry)
Nuno Júdice translated by paulo da costa,
O Perfume da Mentira (ficçóo),
notas de rodapé (poesia),

[BCBW 2016] "Fiction" "Portuguese"