The Brazilian poet, short story writer, translator and literary scholar Astrid Cabral Félix de Sousa, was born in 1936 in Manaus, Amazonas, a city located on the confluence of the Amazon and Negro Rivers. From childhood, she was exposed to Amazonian legends and imaginaries as well as the unique flora and fauna of this biodiverse region, arguably the habitat of up to 50% of the planet’s species. 

Cabral received a degree in Romance Languages from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and in English and North American Literature at IBEU. In the 1950s, she took part in Clube da Madrugada, a literary movement that sought to renew Amazonian poetry by incorporating elements from Brazilian Modernism and Concrete Poetry and which achieved greater recognition for the poetry of the North of Brazil. 

In her early career as professor and literary scholar, Cabral translated the work of Henry David Thoreau. She later quit her teaching job in protest of Brazil’s military dictatorship. She joined the foreign service and lived abroad but always carried with her the imprint of her Amazonian upbringing.  

Cabral’s first volume, Alameda (1963), is a book of “short stories,” where the main characters are all members of the vegetal kingdom.  Her poetry volume Jaula (2006), translated as Cage (2008) by Alexis Levitin, already from emblematic title hints at the fraught relation humans have developed towards animals. Whithin the diversity of species the volume portrays, the identification of the poetic voice with that non-human “other” clearly comes to the fore. Cabral assumes an extreme sensorial style regarding the nonhuman aspects around her. When broaching encounters and involvement between people and animals, her poetry explores the divide between these two realms, emphasizing the recognition of animal alterity. Her later works focus on Amazonian landscapes, especially as recalled in memories from her childhood and youth. Themes such as the decay, ruin, and loss in her poetry are also associated to the effects of time and nature. Other topics include violence and the exploitation of natural resources, all of which are part of the history of her native land.

Cabral has received many prizes. In 1987, she won the Olavo Bilac poetry prize and in 1998 the National Poetry Prize, Helena Kolody, in 1998, followed by Prêmio Nacional de Poesia da Academia Brasileira de Letras, in 2004, and Prêmio Troféu Rio de Personalidade Cultural da União Brasileira de Escritores do Rio de Janeiro, in 2012. 

Her books include: Ponta de cruz: Poemas (1979), Lição de Alice (1986), Intramuros (1998), Jaula (2006), Ante-sala (2007), Palavra na berlinda (2011), among others.