Maria Odete da Costa Soares Semedo
Maria Odete Da Costa Soares Semedo is a writer and literary theorist. She is a senior researcher at the National Institute of Studies and Research (INEP) Guinea-Bissau, where she coordinates the KEBUR II Literary Collection and the Words of Women Series (a biographical study of women). She is also a professor at Amílcar Cabral University Guinea-Bissau. As a writer, working in both Portuguese and Guinea Creole, she is the founder of the journal Tcholona: Revista de Letras, Artes e Cultura and has published two books of poetry, Entre o Ser e o Amar (1996) and No Fundo do Canto (2007). She has served as Guinea-Bissau’s Minister of Health and Minister of National Education, President of the National Commission of UNESCO Guinea-Bissau, and Rector of Amílcar Cabral University.
As of January 2019