Telles continued to work in civil service and became a collaborator with
A Manhã (The Morning), writing a weekly column for the journal located in Rio. In 1949 she received the Afonso Arinos award from the
Brazilian Academy of Letters for
O Cacto Vermelho (Red Cactus), a book of short stories. Among her most successful books is
Ciranda de Pedra (The Marble Dance) (1954 reprinted in 1986), which deals with women's sexuality. Telles felt that it was the first work she had produced that marked her maturity as a writer, often criticizing her earlier works. In 1958, she published
Histórias do Desencontro (Uncontrollable Stories) which won the prize of the . In 1960, Telles divorced, and the following year began working as a solicitor for the Institute of Providence () of the State of São Paulo. She would work in this office and continue her publishing efforts simultaneously until 1991. In 1962, she married, the film critic and writer , though as divorce was not technically recognized in Brazil at that time, their partnership was considered socially unacceptable. Telles continued writing in the following decades, such works as:
Verão no Aquário (Summer at the Aquarium, 1963), which won the
Jabuti Prize in 1965;
Capitu (1967, published 1993) a cinematic script co-written with her husband Gomes based upon
Machado de Assis' work
Dom Casmurro, which won the Candango Award for best screenplay in 1969;
Antes do Baile Verde (Before the Green Ball, 1970), which won
the Best Foreign Women Writers Grand Prix in
Cannes (France) in 1969;
As Meninas (The Girls, 1973; The Girl in the Photograph, 2012), which received multiple awards, including the Jabuti Prize, the Coelho Neto Prize of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and the Best Fiction Award from the
São Paulo Association of Art Critics;
Seminário dos Ratos (Seminary of the Rats, 1977), which would win the award for best short story from the Pen Club of Brazil that same year;
A Disciplina do Amor (The Discipline of Love, 1980), which won her another Jabuti Prize, as well as the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Award; and
As Horas Nuas, (Naked Hours, 1989), which won the "Book of the Year" and was honored with the Prêmio Pedro Nava. Telles' most acclaimed novel,
As Meninas, tells the story of three young women in the early 1970s, a difficult time in the political history of Brazil due to the repression by the military dictatorship. She was among intellectuals who went to
Brasília in 1977, to deliver the Manifesto of the Thousand (). The protest was the largest demonstration of intellectuals since the
press censorship instituted by president/dictator
Emílio Garrastazu Médici began in 1968. She led the delegation, composed of historian and the writers
Nélida Piñon and Jefferson Ribeiro de Andrade to present the signed petition to
Armando Falcão, the
Justice Minister in the cabinet of President
Ernesto Geisel. Later that same year, her husband, Gomes would die. On 24 October 1985, Telles was elected to hold Chair 16, of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, the third woman ever to be elected to a chair. After her retirement from the Institute of Providence in 1991, she continued publishing works such as
A Noite Escura e Mais Eu (The Dark Night and More Me, 1995), which won the Arthur Azevedo Prize from the
National Library of Brazil;
Oito contos de amor (Eight Tales of Love, 1996);
Invenção e Memória (Invention and Memory, 2001), which earned her the Jabuti Prize, a parallel honor as Book of the Year, and the Grand Prize of the Critic of the Best of 2000 from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics;
Durante Aquele Estranho Chá (During the Strange Tea, 2002);
Conspiração de Nuvens (Cloud Compromise, 2007), which won the São Paulo Association of Art Critics Prize; and
Passaporte para a China (Passport to China, 2011). In 1985, Telles was honored as a commander in the
Order of Rio Branco by the government of Brazil. In 1998, she was awarded the French
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in the grade of chevalier and was honored as a grand officer of the
Gabriela Mistral Order of Educational and Cultural Merit from Chile. In 2005 Telles won the
Camões Prize, the highest literary award of the
Portuguese language for her body of works. As of 2013, she was one of the four female members of the
Brazilian Academy of Letters. Her books have been translated into Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and been reprinted in multiple editions in Portuguese. She was nominated for the 2016
Nobel Prize in Literature by the Brazilian Writers' Union. ==Death==