Katherine Vaz leading the way for future generations of Portuguese-American writers

The first Portuguese-American to have her work recorded by the Library of Congress, decades later Katherine Vaz continues to find success among mainstream audiences with her writings infused with Portuguese-American themes, poetic images and complexities of cultural identity.

Her newest book Above the Salt was chosen as Book of the Week by People Magazine and is receiving rave reviews.

“I’ve been working on this book for over 16 years,” Vaz told O Jornal. “My biggest excitement is that readers are saying the book is very poetic, beautifully written and has a great plot. They love the twists and turns, and surprises. They’re believable, but unexpected. To me, that’s the real victory.”

What is 'Above the Salt' based on?

The book was inspired by the true story of up to 2,000 protestants who were driven off the island of Madeira in the late 1800s. It follows two Portuguese refugees who flee religious violence and reignite their budding romance in Civil-War America.

“It was a labor of love that started when I was giving a talk at the Library of Congress in the Hispanic Division about my previous work,” Vaz recalled. “My friend Ieda Siqueira Wiarda told me about an unusual exhibit they had at the Library of Congress about the Portuguese Protestants of Illinois. I had never heard about this story.”

This planted in Vaz a seed of curiosity.

“I went to Madeira, and I got a teaching fellowship in Illinois that allowed me to do a lot of wonderful research,” she said. “I came across things I would not have known, if I had just done research on a computer.”

Vaz recalled how a name plate on a desk at the Lincoln Library in Springfield, Ill., caught her attention.

“I asked him, ‘Gouveia? By chance are you a descendant of the refugees who came from Madeira to Illinois in the 19th century?‘ He said, ‘Oh, my gosh, no one has ever said that to me before,” she said. “He put me in touch with other people who were descendants, who shared some of the old Bibles and hymnals with me… I think people give you a sense of the lifeblood of how stories continue.”

Her research at the library in Madeira led her to personal writings and interviews, including one with John Alves, who had fought for the Union in the Civil War and met Abraham Lincoln.

“Above the Salt” is based on the Portuguese community of Jacksonville, Ill., historical characters, events, the courtship of Alves and his childhood love Maria that took place in the home of rising politician Abraham Lincoln, and a sweeping view of 19th and early 20th century America.

Readers will discover the meaning of the book’s title during a scene with Abraham Lincoln.

What kind of reviews is 'Above the Salt' getting?

The book has drawn praise, among others, from Diniz Borges, director of the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at California State University and also a writer and editor.

“Katherine Vaz has given us yet another magical novel with vivid imagery and the complexities of cultural identity,” Borges said. “Above the Salt is a sprawling epic narrative with thought-provoking and exquisitely crafted language that explores the impact of history, religion, culture, and migration. It is a compelling saga, a literary masterpiece that celebrates the enduring power of love and reflects on our shared heritage.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Michael Rezendes has also highlighted Vaz’s ability of “expressing the inchoate longing of the Portuguese soul.”

“Now, with Above the Salt, she becomes the pre-eminent voice of those of us who are part of the vast Portuguese diaspora with this visionary, immigrants’ tale told through her rueful, hallucinogenic prose,” Rezendes highlighted.

Katherine Vaz named one of the all-time most influential women of Portuguese heritage

In 2022, Vaz was named one of the All-Time Most Influential Lusa Women by the Portuguese-American Leadership Council of the United States.

In 1998, she was appointed to the six-person Presidential Delegation to open the U.S. pavilion at Expo 98/World's Fair in Lisbon.

The author of three novels and numerous collections of stories, Vaz told O Jornal she knew she wanted to be a writer at age 12.

She said she inherited the love for writing from her father, August Vaz, who was born in California but spent his early years in Agualva, Terceira, Azores. He was also a pioneer in writing about the Portuguese in America and his book ‘The Portuguese in California’ is still cited as a source on the subject.

Vaz said she loved hearing her father’s family stories.

“My father really celebrated his roots as an Azorean,” said Vaz, a native of California, who now resides in New York City.“I have a deep and abiding connection to and love of the Luso community.”

A graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara, Vaz earned a master’s at UC Irvine.

She has been a Briggs-Copeland Fellow in Fiction at Harvard University and Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Her debut novel “Saudade,” revolving around a young woman’s daring search for self-expression, was the first contemporary novel about Portuguese-Americans from a major New York publisher and also a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection.

Her second novel “Mariana” – which was based on the true story of Mariana Alcoforado, a Portuguese nun who engaged in a love affair with a French soldier during war time in the 17th century - has been translated into six languages and was picked by the Library of Congress as one of the Top Thirty International Books of 1998.

Her collection “Fado & Other Stories” won a Drue Heinz Literature Prize, and “Our Lady of the Artichokes & Other Portuguese-American Stories” received a Prairie Schooner Book Award.

But as much as she loves writing about the Portuguese-American experience, she said she’s well aware of the challenges that come with it.

“It’s lending myself to their stories and getting it right. Not just the past, but who are these people in the present and in the future,” she said. “What does it mean to be Portuguese-American? What does it mean next year, 10 years from now, 50 years from now? Where is it going as a community? What do roots mean? How does this change? And also honoring the idea of saudade as it’s very special to the Portuguese community.”

Her work, including children’s stories, has also appeared in dozens of magazines, and she won a New York Film Academy and Writer’s Store national contest for a screenplay idea based on one of her stories.

She was a fiction editor for the Harvard Review and has lectured extensively on magical realism.

Arguably the most recognizable name in Portuguese-American fiction, she has emerged as a luminary figure.

“I think there are now all sorts of young, exciting men and women who are feeling their power to tell their stories, and that I could have had a role in that means the world to me,” she said. “Continuing these aspects of visibility with our books and stories is very important. It’s a sharing of our common roots with a larger audience, that exists and really wants to find out and celebrate more Portuguese stories.”

Since 2013, Vaz has been leading the Writing the Luso Experience workshop at Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal.

“I do read and study Portuguese for an hour every morning with my morning coffee,” she revealed. “I think identity does funnel through language and that’s important for me to tap as much as possible, especially now that my father, my godmother, my grandmother, my cousins, so many of them are gone.”

When is Katherine Vaz coming to Mass.?

Vaz has spent recent weeks giving talks and promoting her new book.

On Thursday, Jan. 25 she will be in Massachusetts for a conversation with writer Elizabeth Graver. The event will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. at Porter Square Books, located at 25 White St., Cambridge.

“I would love to do something in Fall River, but nothing has yet been arranged,” Vaz said. “I’m enjoying celebrating ‘Above the Salt’ and communicating with readers for a while because this moment was over 16 years in the making.”

What’s Katherine Vaz working on?

Vaz told O Jornal she has some ideas sketched out for two new books.

“One is very short and contemporary,” she said, without giving further details.

She’s also working on a screenplay based on her collection of short stories “Lady of the Artichokes.”

“I recently went to Munich, Germany, to work with an American screenwriter and producer named Robin Swicord, who has done a lot of literary adaptations,” she said. “It’s kind of fun to work on something that’s a little bit different. So, I’m looking forward to these next two projects.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Katherine Vaz talks about her latest novel and upcoming projects