José Alberto Marques

Poet and fiction writer. He completed secondary studies in his hometown, where he was part of the Cine Clube's board. In 1959, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Lisbon, a course he did not complete, and in the same year, he was editor of the newspaper Quadrante. He tried various professions until he entered secondary education as a teacher, while studying History at the University of Lisbon, later moving to preparatory education. He was co-founder and stage director of the Theater Section of Orfeão da Covilhã and one of the organizers of the 1st Amateur Theater Festival of Covilhã. He put into practice the dissemination of modern Portuguese poetry through colloquia accompanied by live performances. In 1970, he was arrested by PIDE [the dictatorship's political police]. He collaborated in most of the achievements and manifestations of the Experimental Poetry Movement, such as magazines (Poesia Experimental, Operação 1, Hidra 2, PO/EX 80), happenings, etc. He participated in several visual poetry exhibitions in Portugal and abroad. He organized, with E. M. de Melo e Castro, an Antologia da Poesia Concreta em Portugal (1973). He individually performed several performances. His book Flexõesreflexões served as the basis for a multimedia show at the Centro de Arte Moderna da Fundação C. Gulbenkian. He contributed to literary pages and magazines where he initiated literary criticism. He was co-founder of the cultural cooperative Sal da Terra, Lisbon, to which the magazine Crisol belonged, and of which he was literary director. He also dedicates himself to children's and young adult literature as a promoter and author. His work combines a taste for creativity and experimentation with an uninhibited and healthy sense of humor, to which the surrealist lesson is not entirely alien. He was an alternate member of the Board of the Associação Portuguesa de Escritores.