Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room N3168
1226 Park Street
Grinnell, IA 50112
United States
Bruna Dantas Lobato
Bruna Dantas Lobato is a fiction writer, translator of Brazilian literature, and Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Grinnell College.
Her translation of The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel won the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Other translations have received the English PEN Translates Award and the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and have been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the PEN Translation Prize, and the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
Her debut novel, Blue Light Hours, is forthcoming in October 2024 from Grove Atlantic in the U.S, Companhia das Letras/PRH in Brazil (in her own translation), Dasan in South Korea, and İş Kültür in Turkey.. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, A Public Space, and The Common, and has received support from MacDowell, Yaddo, Jentel, A Public Space, NYU, Disquiet International, and more.
Dantas Lobato has taught creative writing at New York University, Bennington College, Bread Loaf, the Center for Fiction, and Catapult. She holds an MFA in Fiction from NYU, an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa, and a BA in Literature and Latin American Studies from Bennington College. Born and raised in Natal, Brazil, she lives in Iowa.
Education and Degrees
MFA, Creative Writing-Fiction, New York University
MFA, Literary Translation, University of Iowa
BA, Literature, Bennington College
Selected Publications
Fiction
Blue Light Hours: a novel, Grove Atlantic, 2024
"Snowstorm," The New Yorker, 2022
"Reunion," Guernica, 2022
"Diversions," A Public Space, 2018
"Firsthand Account," The Common, 2017
Translation
No Dragons in Paradise by Caio Fernando Abreu, Archipelago Books, 2026
Niterói Lights by Marcello Quintanilha, Fantagraphics, 2026
No Point in Dying by Francisco Maciel, New Vessel Press, 2025
Puta by Amara Moira, Feminist Press, 2025
The Tokyo Suite by Giovana Madalosso, Europa Editions, 2025
The Dark Side of Skin by Jeferson Tenório, Charco Press, 2024
The Words that Remain by Stênio Gardel, New Vessel Press, 2023
The Collector of Heads by Ana Matsusaki, Tapioca Stories, 2023
Moldy Strawberries by Caio Fernando Abreu, Archipelago Books, 2022
In the News
"Shapers of Voices Listen to Their Own," The New York Times, 2024
"Want to Write Better Fiction? Become a Translator," The Millions, 2024
"‘Building Something Together’: Translators Discuss Their Art," The New York Times, 2023
"Translators on the Art of Translating," Forum on KQED-FM, 2023