Nadja Fernandes
Nadja is a teacher, translator, and writer. Born and raised in Brazil, she made Australia her home, where she lives with her daughter. She mainly writes fiction and her writing is influenced by Magic Realism, authors like James Joyce, Patricia Highsmith, Julio Cortazar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Machado de Assis, to name a few. Her themes often involve Latin America, minority groups, and human relationships in general. You can find out a bit more about her work here. Enjoy your reading.
Stories that talk to the soul
Second book coming soon
I have developed the habit of keeping a die on my desk. When I make time for writing, I roll the die just before. Once it's cast, whatever number it reveals will determine how much I'll write. If I'm really inspired, I generally write more. If the inspiration is not fully present, then I must find a way to invoke it. "If I don't obey the die, a precious story might die", I tell myself...
Books and Food: the perfect combo
Food is one of my core sources of inspiration, from its symbolic aspect. As we nurture our bodies by eating, I believe stories can nurture the spirit. When I cook and prepare food, I find the kind of peace I only encounter when I write. The difference is I'm a lot less self-conscious about my cooking...although it has not always been like that.
The process of story telling is an inherent human trait. How many stories are shared around a table, over a meal? We share the food as we share the stories. We mix the ingredients, as we combine the characters and all many other elements of our stories. And each time the same story is told or read or heard, there might be a new flavour that had not been depicted up to that moment. And so it keeps evolving.
work in progress
First Aid Seamstress is Nadja's debut novel, meant to entertain, amuse and inspire. It's a story about love, courage, growth and embracing our true nature and others'.
Other projects
As I believe stories should be told, I have recently started to record public domain texts for LibriVox. They have audio texts in a number of different languages and if you like audiobooks, you should check it out: Librivox.org
If you enjoy poetry, visit http://mascarareview.com/nadja-fernandes/
I have also contributed with two a stories to a wonderful project initially called My disAbilities. The book has been published and is called The Eighteen Point Five. To find out more click the button below
other activities
I organise regular reading workshops, where one short story or a chapter of a novel is read each session and participants discuss it. The idea is to share different reactions to the texts and promote more interest in reading fiction. It generally takes place on Fridays. If you are interested, send us an email.