Leiria Dias

Poet. In 1949, he interrupted his studies at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon and left for Angola, where he entered the administrative staff and reached the rank of district administrator. In 1975, he returned to Portugal, settling in Peniche. Soon after his arrival in Luanda, he integrated into the literary movement active there, spearheaded by the magazine Cultura (1945–1951), the organ of the Angolan Cultural Society, where he published some poems. He later also contributed poetry to the Boletim Cultural do Huambo (Nova Lisboa, 1948–1974) and Convivium (Benguela, 1970–1971). Meanwhile, he made his book debut with Gotas d'Água, a volume of quatrains in the popular style, with a preface by Silva Tavares. He is represented in Maria da Conceição Nobre's Antologia de Poesias Angolanas (Nova Lisboa, 1957) and, with fifteen poems, in vol. 4 of Filipe Neiva's Antologia Poética (Edição de Convivium, Centro Cultural de Benguela, 1971).