Maria Eugénia da Silva Neto

A poet and, above all, an author of children's and young adult literature (short stories and poems), Maria Eugénia Neto completed her high school studies, attended drawing and language improvement classes, and was a member of the National Conservatory Choirs in Lisbon. She made her literary debut with articles and poems in the weekly newspaper Gazeta do Sul, from Montijo, which at that time, in the 1940s, had significant national prominence. It was also during this period that she became involved with a group of students from the University of Lisbon who originated from the then Portuguese colonies in Africa. Through this group, she met Agostinho Neto, whom she would marry in 1957, accompanying him to Angola in 1959 and, from then on, through all his exiles and struggles. In addition to her scattered contributions to Portuguese and Angolan newspapers, she collaborated with the magazine Lotus, published by the Organization of Afro-Asian Writers, and with Femmes du Monde Entier, published by the Women's International Democratic Federation. During her exile in Dar-es-Salaam, she published several short stories there between 1969 and 1973, which were translated into English and French. However, her bibliography only began to take true book form after Angola's independence, with editions published in Lisbon. She also signed her works as Maria Eugénia and Eugénia Neto.