The Portuguese & Lusophone-world Lecture Series, with Katherine Vaz

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is thrilled to welcome renown author KATHERINE VAZ to the Cook Memorial Theater stage on Thursday, September 19 at 6:00 PM. The lecture will be followed by lite reception from 7:00 to 8:00 PM.

Vaz's presentation will focus on the publication of her novel ABOVE THE SALT, a labor of love over fifteen years in the making. The novel is a fictional account drawing upon the true story of the Madeiran refugees who were adopted by Illinois in the era of the Civil War. ABOVE THE SALT was published in 2023 by Flatiron Books/Macmillan and is forthcoming from ASA Publishers in Portugal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KATHERINE VAZ, a former Briggs-Copeland Fellow in Fiction at Harvard, Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute, and a National Endowment for the Arts recipient, has published the novels SAUDADE and MARIANA. The latter appeared in six languages and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the Top Thirty International Books of 1998. In 2024, a new edition will be reissued in Portugal, where it was a bestseller and went into five editions. Film rights are optioned by Harrison Productions, with Sandy Welch attached as screenwriter.

Vaz’s collection FADO & OTHER STORIES won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and OUR LADY OF THE ARTICHOKES won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. Her multi-media artbook THE HEART IS A DROWNING OBJECT, with artist Isabel Pavão, was released by Artist’s Proof Editions in 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in dozens of magazines, including Tin House, BOMB, The Harvard Review, Gargoyle, Glimmer Train, The Common, Ninth Letter, The Antioch Review etc., and her children’s stories are included in several anthologies from Viking and Simon & Schuster.

ABOVE THE SALT, (November, 2023, Flatiron Books/Macmillan), a novel, is a People Magazine Book of the Week selection, a Good Morning, America Top 15, a Goodreads November top pick, and received starred Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly reviews. Film representation is with Rich Green of Gotham Group. The novel will appear in Portuguese in June, 2024.

She is the first Portuguese American to have her work recorded for the archives of the Library of Congress (Hispanic Division) and was listed by the Portuguese American Leadership Conference of the U.S. as one of the all-time most influential Lusa women.

She lives in New York City with her husband Christopher Cerf, son of Bennett Cerf, the founder of Random House. Christopher is an editor, TV producer, and former Sesame Street composer and writer.