Deborah Goldemberg was born in São Paulo in 1975. She is an anthropologist from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom and has a master’s degree in Development Studies from the same university. Since 1998, she has been working in the Northeast and North of Brazil with socioenvironmental development projects, allowing her a vast experience in traditional cultures and influencing her writing until today.
She debuted in literature with the novel Ressurgência Icamiaba, a story inspired by indigenous legends from the Amazon Rainforest. In the same year, O Fervo da Terra was launched, which discusses Brazil’s Midwest colonisation dynamics through the eyes of an indigenous boy adopted by a gaúcho settlers family. In 2010, Ms Goldemberg published a collection of poems together with Yiyi Jambo, with both Portuguese and wild Portuñol translations.
In 2011, she won the PROAC Prize from the Government of São Paulo to fund Valentia novel’s publication, which has the Cabanagem War (1835-1840) as the main plot. Pará State’s indigenous leaders invited the author to write this book collecting oral narratives on a boat expedition throughout Tapajós and Arapiuns rivers. Valentia was a finalist for the 2012 Machado de Assis Prize (National Library) and the Jabuti Prize 2013. In recent years, Valentia has been studied in several Brazilian universities and in the United States, as a reference for literary dialoguing with indigenous narratives.
Years later, Deborah began writing for children’s and youth, willing to enhance her as a writer. She got a contract with Ed. Biruta to publish Antônio Descobre Veredas. It is a book for 10 to 13 years old and tells a story inspired by the acclaimed Guimarães Rosa novel, Grande Sertão: Veredas. The book was published in 2014.