Paulo Henriques Britto was born in Rio de Janeiro, in a middle-class family. His father was a military officer. When he was 10 years old, his father was detached to the US, and his family moved to Washington, D.C , for two and a half years. Later, Britto returned to the US to study film in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but never finished the studies. It was then he began writing poetry. Britto graduated in Portuguese and English Literature at the
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in 1978 and got a Master's degree in Languages in 1982 at the same university. He debuted as a poet in 1982, with
Liturgia da matéria, followed by
Mínima Lírica (1989),
Trovar Claro (1997), which was awarded the
Prêmio Alphonsus de Guimarães by
Biblioteca Nacional Foundation, and
Macau (2003), which was awarded the
Prêmio Portugal Telecom de literatura brasileira. In 2004 he wrote the short story book
Paraísos Artificiais and in 2007 he wrote
Tarde, followed by
Formas do nada, in 2012. He translated over one hundred books to Portuguese, by authors such as
William Faulkner,
Elizabeth Bishop,
Byron,
John Updike,
Thomas Pynchon and
Charles Dickens. Britto is also an associate professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in translation, creative writing, and Brazilian literature courses. == Works ==