Natália Correia

Natália Correia (born in Fajã de Baixo, Azores, in 1923; died in Lisbon in 1993) was a Portuguese poet, novelist, essayist and politician, and one of the most significant writers of twentieth-century Portugal. She wrote in Portuguese across nearly every genre, from poetry and fiction to drama, essays and anthologies. Her standing rests on her literary output and on her public role defending culture and human rights.

As a child she moved with her mother and sister from the Azores to Lisbon, where she began studying and publishing, first a children's story and then poems. Her writing, deeply shaped by the landscape of her native island, draws on surrealism, Galician-Portuguese lyric poetry and mysticism, and ranges from romantic lyricism to satire. Under Salazar's dictatorship she opposed the regime vigorously, backing opposition movements and presidential candidates, and was prosecuted over an anthology of erotic and satirical verse while her work faced censorship. After the 1974 revolution she served in parliament, and her home and the Botequim bar brought together much of Portugal's intellectual community.

Her legacy lives on in her poetry and in her public voice. For the centenary of her birth in 2023, Ponta Delgada established a literary prize in her name.