# Dalton Trevisan

Dalton Jérson Trevisan (14 June 1925 – 9 December 2024) was a Brazilian short story writer. He published more than thirty collections of short stories.

## Life and work

Trevisan graduated from the Federal University of Paraná with a degree in legal studies, but he seldom worked in the law profession.
In the 1940s, Trevisan created and edited the literary magazine Joaquim. The magazine "reported on debates centered on the challenging ideas belonging to the new generation of modern artists" and sought to "question the concepts of ethics and aesthetics that were in style at that time in Brazil." The Public Library of Paraná states that the magazine brought Paraná into mainstream Brazilian literary discourse and describes the magazine as essential to understanding the cultural trajectory of the state. The magazine published 21 issues and circulated between April 1946 and December 1948. It provided the first publication in Portuguese for work by James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, Franz Kafka, Louis Aragon, Tristan Tzara, García Lorca, Rainer Maria Rilke, André Gide, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Other contributors included Vinícius de Moraes, Carlos Drummond, Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, and Antônio Cândido. Joaquim also published original artwork by visual artists such as Candido Portinari, Di Cavalcanti, Guido Viaro, and Poty Lazzarotto. Lazzarotto continued to work with Trevisan as an editorial partner and illustrator over the following decades.
In 1959, Trevisan published his first collection, Novelas Nada Exemplares. His short stories were inspired by daily life in Curitiba, his hometown. He also experimented with the Japanese Haibun. World Literature Today described his stories as depicting "blood-soaked violence, primarily the domestic kind frequently splashed across lurid tabloids that sensationalize the conjugal warfare between oppressive husbands and oppressed wives." His narratives sought to expose a culture of perversion and violence underlying middle-class hypocrisy. His reclusive behavior and the content of his work earned him the nickname "The Vampire of Curitiba."
In 1972, translator Gregory Rabassa translated Novelas Nada Exemplares and O Vampiro de Curitiba into English. As of 2024 these remain the only English translations of Trevisan's collections. Two translated stories, The Corpse in the Parlor and The Vampire of Curitiba, are included in the English-language Oxford Anthology of the Brazilian Short Story. K. David Jackson's introduction describes Trevisan as a modernist innovator, who "continues to pare his stories, which demolish bourgeois desire, until arriving at the mini-story, or minimalist form."
Trevisan passed away in Curitiba on 9 December 2024, at the age of 99.

## Honors and awards

Trevisan has been called "a Brazilian master of the genre" and "one of the preeminent modern short story writers."
In 2012 Trevisan won the Prémio Camões, the leading prize for Portuguese language literature.

## Works

* Abismo de Rosas (1976)
* Ah, É? (1994)
* A Faca No Coração (1975)
* A Guerra Conjugal (1969)
* A Polaquinha (1985) (novel)
* Arara Bêbada (2004)
* A Trombeta do Anjo Vingador (1977)
* Capitu Sou Eu (2003)
* Cemitério de Elefantes (1964)
* 111 Ais (2000)
* Chorinho Brejeiro (1981)
* Contos Eróticos (1984)
* Crimes de Paixão (1978)
* Desastres do Amor (1968)
* Dinorá – Novos Mistérios (1994)
* 234 (1997)
* Em Busca de Curitiba Perdida (1992)
* Essas Malditas Mulheres (1982)
* Gente Em Conflito (with Antônio de Alcântara Machado) (2004)
* Lincha Tarado (1980)
* Macho não ganha flor (2006)
* Meu Querido Assassino (1983)
* Morte na Praça (1964)
* Mistérios de Curitiba (1968)
* Noites de Amor em Granada
* Novelas nada Exemplares (1959)
* 99 Corruíras Nanicas (2002)
* O Grande Deflorador (2002)
* O Pássaro de Cinco Asas (1974)
* O Rei da Terra (1972)
* O Vampiro de Curitiba (1965) (The Vampire of Curitiba)
* Pão e Sangue (1988)
* Pico na veia (2002)
* Primeiro Livro de Contos (1979)
* Quem tem medo de vampiro? (1998)
* Vinte Contos Menores (1979)
* Virgem Louca, Loucos Beijos (1979)
* Vozes do Retrato – Quinze Histórias de Mentiras e Verdades (1998)