Hélia Correia

Hélia Correia is a Portuguese novelist, playwright, and poet born in 1949 in Lisbon. She is one of the most important and distinctive voices in contemporary Portuguese literature, known for fiction that draws on Greek mythology, Portuguese folk tradition, and feminist reinterpretation of classical forms. Her work occupies a unique space between the literary and the mythological. Correia is the author of novels including Montedemo (1983), Soma (1987), A Casa Eterna (1991), and Lillias Fraser (2001, Grande Prémio de Romance e Novela da APE). Her theater work has been performed throughout Portugal and internationally. Her fiction is known for its lyrical intensity, its engagement with female experience and female power, and its ability to find the mythological in the domestic. She received the Prémio Camões in 2015, the highest recognition in Portuguese-language literature. The prize honored a body of work that has consistently pushed the boundaries of Portuguese narrative while remaining deeply rooted in its traditions. Correia is a significant feminist voice in Portuguese literature, and her work has been increasingly recognized internationally through translation and performance.