Podcast Episode 215: Manuela Da Costa

Welcome, Manuela Laurenco Da Costa! Manuela DaCosta is a fiction writer and the author of the Hawk Island series. Acores is the Portuguese word for hawk. It is spelled Azores in English. The series, according to Google Books, "...stands in the middle of the Atlantic, small and defiant, like its people. Two Brooks is the most isolated village in Hawk Island, surrounded by high cliffs and flanked at each end by a brook. It is a village of tenacious people, hardened by isolation and punished by nature with crude winters and burning droughts. It is also a place forsaken by God and men that boasts a long history of civil disobedience and defiance of social norms."

Born in Terceira, Acores, she immigrated to the United States as a young adult just before the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Manuela graduated from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMass Dartmouth). She lives in New Bedford with her husband and cat.

In addition to writing the Hawk Island series, Manuela published her first book, Os Sonhos de Dona Dores, in the 90s. Written in Portuguese prose, it illustrates the conflicts between a young girl and her parents as immigrants in a new country. Hawk Island offers a different approach with intense character building and deeply descriptive landscapes. It tells the story of the dynamic between islanders and strangers on this remote island.

Manuela spoke with The Artists Index co-founder, documentarian, and podcast host, Ron Fortier. They discussed her writing, heritage, and life. This episode was recorded at our recording studio at Spectrum Marketing Group at Howland Place in New Bedford.

Manuela DaCosta

New Bedford, MA 02744

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