Salim Miguel was born in Kfarssouron, Lebanon, on January 30, 1924. He came to Brazil with his family when he was just three years old; the landing took place in Rio de Janeiro, state where they remained for around a year. The family's final destination, however, was the state of Santa Catarina, more specifically Biguaçu, municipality of Grande Florianópolis. During his childhood, Salim got to know a little about the city's past through the words of Ti Adão, a centenarian former slave. Most likely, it was the stories of Ti Adam that encouraged the boy to create his first scenarios and characters. After his teenage years, Salim left Biguaçu for the state capital: Florianópolis. At that time, in Florianópolis, modern art was just beginning to flourish. Thanks to the efforts of a group of young artists, gathered under the name of Círculo de Arte Moderna (CAM), several manifestations considered modernist took the stages and streets of Florianópolis. In 1948, the group founded Revista Sul, to which Salim would contribute for about ten years. In 1951, he published his first book, “Old Age and Other Stories”. More than thirty titles came over the following years, among them “The death of the lieutenant and other deaths”, “Brief Life of Sezefreno das Neves”, “Mare Nostrum” and “Nur in the Darkness”. In partnership with his wife, Eglê Malheiros, he also wrote the screenplay for the first feature film produced in Santa Catarina, “The Price of Illusion”. As a result of the 1964 military coup, both Salim and Eglê were arrested for their political and cultural activism. During the month and a half that he remained in prison, Salim kept a diary to which he returned almost thirty years later, giving it the contours of fiction. “Primeiro de Abril: Narratives from the Chain” was published in 1994 and considered the best novel of the year by the União Brasileira de Escritores. Between the 1970s and 1980s, Salim created photo reports for Manchete magazine and wrote literary reviews for Jornal do Brasil. Between 1983 and 1991, he directed the Editora da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (EdUfsc), making it one of the most important in the country. In 1993, he took over the Franklin Cascaes Foundation, where he collaborated in defining cultural policies for Florianópolis. Later, in 2002, Salim Miguel received the title of Doctor Honorary from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and the Juca Pato Intellectual of the Year Award from the Brazilian Writers Union. In 2009, he received the Machado de Assis award from the Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL) in recognition of his body of work.
ADVERTISING
ADVERTISING
