SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – In Brazil, as in most of the world, while women make up significantly more than half of book readers, they are still a minority when it comes to being book authors. When one looks at lesbian authors, writing about LGBTQ+ themes, the numbers are even smaller.
One woman, however, in the town of Franca, in the interior of São Paulo state, is trying to change all that.
Manuela Neves is founder and editor of Vira Letra, one of Brazil’s publishing houses that work exclusively with lesbian writers, producing lesbian-themed books.
“I started off focusing on both lesbian writers and writers from my rural city of Franca. Three years ago, however, I shifted my focus to only lesbian and bisexual writers,” Neves told the Rio Times in a telephone interview.
So far, she says, the response has been very positive. “I get dozens of emails a month from women and girls who say that the books published by Vira Letra have helped them overcome their fear and confusion about being lesbians, and show them that they are not alone in the world.”
“They thank us for creating a channel to portray what they are feeling,” she notes, adding that sales have been continuingly growing since she started the company five years ago.
Today, Vira Letra represents ten authors and has published 25 books. The books are sold through the internet as e-books or printed works.
A study conducted by Brasilia University showed that 70 percent of the books published from 1965 to 2014 were written by men. The study also revealed that 60 percent of the main characters of these books written by men were also men, in their vast majority, white and heterosexual.
Vira Letra and other independent publishing houses are trying to change that because, according to Neves, these numbers “do not portray Brazil’s reality”.:
LGBTQ+ community celebrates in Brasilia the criminalization of homophobia by Brazil’s Supreme Court, photo Marcello Casal/Agencia Brasil.“Our very different, diverse communities are not accurately represented in Brazilian literature. This is what we (Vira Letra) try to do: give voice to these minority authors and help those (lesbian) readers who feel they are all alone in the world.”
Neves, who lived a couple of years in the cosmopolitan city of São Paulo, says despite gains made in recent years in relation to LGBTQ+ rights, discrimination and intolerance is still very common in smaller cities throughout the country.
“Outside the São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro corridor, the reality for lesbian women and LGBTQ+ people in Brazil is very cruel; now more than ever,” says Neves alluding to President Jair Bolsonaro, who has publicly come out against homosexuals and once said that if one of his sons came home and told him he was gay, he would beat him up.
So, what started out as an outlet for lesbian authors to express themselves has taken on a much more political, activist position. “(For me) Literature has always been a political undertaking. Now with this new government, much more so,” she says.
And although sometimes this publisher says she feels like the LGBTQ+ community takes two steps forward just to take a step back, she is not giving up.
“I have no intention of cowering or telling my authors to ease up on criticisms. If they push (to restrict LGBT rights) we will push right back,” she snaps.
According to the publisher, since January when President Bolsonaro took office, her company has held more live events, such as roundtables and book discussions, and with more public participation than ever before.
“Our authors live throughout the country and when they hold book sessions they not only discuss their books but our other authors as well. This lets women know that there are other writers out there publishing,” says Neves.
The publisher is also venturing into new segments.
Neves and her partner, Renata Prado, have recently become parents of Caetano, and have written a children’s book entitled “Caetano’s Family”. The book is about a boy with two mothers.
“We hope the book will help parents and teachers talk to young children about the different types of families there are in the world, and that all are normal,” she says.
“Someday I want lesbian literature to be just plain literature. I don’t want the types of books I publish to have any labels, I want my books to be just good literature,” concludes Neves.