Salette Tavares

Maria de La Salette Arraiano Tavares (1922–1988) was a Portuguese writer, poet and essayist, best known for her visual poetry.

Early life and education Salette Tavares was born on 31 March 1922 in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) in Portuguese Mozambique. At the age of 11 her family returned to Portugal and lived in Sintra in the Lisbon District. This displacement would become an integral part of the imagery in her writing. In 1946 she studied Spanish with the philologist, Manuel Alvar. She then studied historical-philosophical sciences at the University of Lisbon, graduating in 1948 with a thesis entitled Aproximação do pensamento concreto de Gabriel Marcel (Approaching Gabriel Marcel's concrete thinking). Her thesis was published in the same year. In 1949, she attended several courses in Paris. From 1950, she taught at a high school and also took lessons in pottery. She then obtained a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to study aesthetics in France and Italy, where she worked with Mikel Dufrenne, Étienne Souriau e Gillo Dorfles.

Having published in several magazines from the 1940s, in 1957, Tavares published her first book of experimental poetry, called Espelho cego (Blind mirror). In 1964, she paid a visit to New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia where she visited several museums in the company of her friend, the poet Frank O'Hara, and studied modern architecture with the architect Philip Johnson, also meeting Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe.

Selected works Publications by Tavares include: 1957. Espelho cego (Blind mirror). Lisbon, editora Ática 1965. 14 563 letras de Pedro Sete (14,563 lyrics by Pedro Sete). Lisbon, Livraria Fomento de Cultura 1971. Lex icon. Lisbon, editora Moraes, (with a preface by Gillo Dorfles) 1979. Brincar, Brin Cadeiras, Brincade Iras. Lisbon, editora Quadrum 1992. Obra poética (1957–1971). Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moedacom, (with an introduction by Luciana Stegagno Picchio) 1995. Poesia Gráfica (Graphic poetry). Lisbon, Casa Fernando Pessoa 2014. Poesia Espacial (Spatial poetry). Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, ISBN 978-972-635-292-1

Awards and honours In 1992, her entire poetic production was published in Obra Poética, 1957–1971, which won her the PEN Prize, one of the most prestigious literary awards in Portugal.

Death Tavares died in Lisbon on 30 May 1994.