A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana

The simple, spartan dinner table, where the Ledig House guests
enjoyed meals cooked by their portuguese chef.
‘ There was a critic from the Wine spectator
in our group, so the stakes were high,
but the portuguese wines got two
thumbs up.
moreiras
’ paulo
– can ultimately be worth three or four
times that. “A blessing,” as Paulo Moreiras
would say. Luísa Costa Gomes adds, “For
me it was moving to hear someone say,
‘tell us what you need and we’ll get it for
you; your job is to write.’ A woman
doesn’t get to hear that very often. At one
point, I was craving fresh blueberries, and
I always had a stock of them in the fridge!
It was ‘Old Jim’ and his son who did the
shopping. There was a day when a bunch
of us – women writers and poets – had
to go off to the mall, because we missed
going to the supermarket.”
In addition to all the free time, which
she dubbed “extremely beneficial,” Luísa
Costa Gomes recalls how the management
of the Ledig House always made themselves
available: D.W. Gibson (“Young, cultured,
cheerful, happy, committed, and affectionate”),
who organized the activities and was
the intermediary between the institution
and the residents; and the cook who had
a Portuguese background, Rita Soares-Kern.
She was also taken by the “austere comfort”
of the house, the “old, bare-bones furni-
cuLTure
ture, lots of windows, lots of trees, and lots
of wild critters. You almost feel like a real
American author.”
Paulo Moreiras also won’t forget Rita
Soares-Kern. The author’s penchant for fine
food (a redeeming quality rather than a
fault) is no secret. “I learned a lot of tricks
and exchanged loads of recipes with Rita,”
the author of elogio da Ginja tells us. D.W.
Gibson confirms the fact: “He would help
her out a lot and we got used to seeing him
in the kitchen. He’s a great example of community
spirit at work in Ledig House.” The
crowning glory, Paulo Moreiras tells us, was
a collectively cooked dinner of fava beans
with smoked sausage, pork-belly, and bottles
of Portuguese wine they serendipitously
came across in a nearby store. “There was
a critic from the Wine Spectator in our group,
so the stakes were high, but the Portuguese
wines got two thumbs up.”
Aside from the group dinners, a diplomatic
obligation that soon turned into a
source of pleasure and even an informal
kind of group therapy (at the end of a day
of routine, the writers and translators were
‘ Being so far away helped a lot, especially
before the writing stage when i’m putting
my ideas together and thinking things over,
because it provides you with a mindset
different from the one you’d have ordinarily.
’
david machado
“An awesome experience,” is how paulo moreiras (left)
describes his stay at the writer’s retreat.
able to share their doubts and dilemmas),
on the weekends the Ledig House held
informal get-togethers with guests from
the New York publishing world. It was
this spirit of literary give-and-take that
led to the founding of the House, which
was based on the efforts of German publisher
Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt, who
lent his name to the retreat. The resident
writers and translators –never more than
ten at a time – also have to present work
before the local community. “When I took
part in a public reading, I realized how
much curiosity and interest there was in
the Portuguese language,” Paulo Moreiras
says. The hardest part may be going home,
despite how much the writers miss their
families and the taste of delicious plate of
salt cod. The author of Os Dias Saturno had
a harder time with the jet lag coming
back. “But after two weeks, I started working
again full throttle, but I missed that
magnificent experience.” On this score,
all the writers agree. After all, without
experiencing life, there’s really nothing to
write.
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 77
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