Joana Bértholo (Lisbon, 1982)
Joana Bértholo is a novelist and a play-writer.
Joana Bértholo holds a degree in Graphic Design from the Lisbon Faculty of Fine Arts and a PhD in Cultural Studies from Europa-Universität Viadrina, Germany, with her thesis subsequently published by Routledge UK.
She has published four novels, two collections of short stories, a novella, and a children’s book, all published by Editorial Caminho, one of Portugal’s leading publishing houses. She has also contributed to various collections and anthologies through other publishers; and has other titles with Relógio d’Água, PatoLógico, INCM, Dois Dias Edições and Edições Prado.
- In 2009, Joana’s debut novel «Diálogos Para o Fim do Mundo» (Dialogues to The End of The World) received the Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho Award.
- Later, in 2018, «Ecologia», was shortlisted for various prestigious awards such as the APE, PEN Club, DST, Casino da Póvoa, and a semi-finalist of the Oceanos Award.
- That same year, «The Museum of Thought» was recognized as the Best Children’s Book by the Portuguese Society of Authors and received the Fátima Literary Festival Award in the same category.
- In 2020, she was the author selected to represent Portuguese literature at the Night of European Literature.
- More recently, in 2023 the «A História de Roma» (The Story of Rome) won the Eça de Queiroz/Millenium BCP Award and was finalist of the Oceanos Award.
Through writing, she pursues a wide scope of interests, exploring literature, narrative and storytelling as a platform to investigate ideas on ecology, technology, sustainability, human connection, other contemporary topics and our relationship with nature and all forms of life.
Since 2013 she also writes regularly for the perfomative arts, theatre plays and dramaturgic work. Her first long play was staged at Teatro Nacional D. Maria II, in 2018 – «Quarto Minguante»; and translated into French for the Festival «Écrire et mettre en scène» at Panta Theatre in Caen. Her second play, «Corpo/Arena», was selected by the FabulaMundi-Playwriting Europe platform and was to premiere in Italy (by the company MammutTeatro) until the pandemic made that impossible.
She lived many years abroad, in Europe and South America, with a highlight to the year spent in Buenos Aires, volunteering at Eloisa Cartonera, a very special book publisher that works with the «cartoneros», urban waste scavengers. She is now based in Lisbon, Portugal.
2019
Shaping and Sharing
The book Shaping and Sharing features a group of essays by different authors on the topic of global sharing platforms and how they are affecting our lives.
Presented and distributed by the Bienal de Arte da Maia 2019.
Commissioned by
Sara Orsi
Edited by
Justin Jaeckle.
design
Isabel Lucena
36 pages
ISBN 978-972-8315-51-1
2018
The Radiance of the Short-story: Fiction from around the Globe
Editores
Maurice A. Lee
Aaron Penn
Edição:
Húmus
ISBN 9789897553530
832 p.
Featured short-story: Horizontal Archaeology
Translated by Cecilia Beecher Martins
page 77
2019
Waterworld
Joana Bértholo and Giuseppe Porcaro imagine a Europe where a hundred years from now geography has changed, the sea level has risen and a network of floating cities dominates what once was known as the Mediterranean sea.
A growing number of science fiction authors are talking about global warming overtly, imagining futures full of flooded cities, droughts, melting icecaps, and other disasters. There is even a new label used for this, climate fiction or “cli-fi”.
Shelley Streeby, a professor from the University of California recently published an extensive analysis of the role of speculative fiction in imagining the future of climate change. She reviewed the various activists, artists, and science fiction writers that, from the 1960s to the present, have imagined the consequences of global warming and its impacts on our future. Authors such as Octavia Butler and Leslie Marmon Silko, movie directors such as Bong Joon-Ho, and creators of digital media such as the makers of the Maori web series Anamata Future News have all envisioned future worlds during and after environmental collapse, engaging audiences to think about the earth’s sustainability. As public awareness of climate change has grown, so has the popularity of works of climate fiction that connect science with activism.
In this episode Joana Bertholo and Giuseppe Porcaro dive into cli-fi and imagine the impact of global warming on the coastal areas of Europe. We are a hundred years from now and geography has changed. The sea level has risen and the coastline of our continent has heavily changed.
How would this new geography of Europe look like?
2010
UP Magazine
Profile by Madalena Proença.
