Regina Rheda (born 1957 ) is a Brazilian-born writer who lives in the United States. She is known for her prose fiction concerning urban life, transnational migration, class conflicts, and animal rights. She received a national book award, Prêmio Jabuti, in 1995.

Early life

Rheda was born in 1957 in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, the eldest of four siblings. Her family moved to the city of São Paulo while she was in grammar school. She studied at the University of São Paulo.

Career

Before becoming a writer, she had worked with film, video and television. Her works won awards. In the 80s, she was singer-songwriter in a rock band. In the 90s, she was one of the directors of the children's television program Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum. She earned a Jabuti prize for short fiction in 1995 with her debut collection of short stories Arca sem Noé - Histórias do Edifício Copan, which was translated as Stories From the Copan Building. The story "O mau vizinho" received the Lusophone fiction award from the Maison de l'Amérique latine. The collection was included in the volume First World Third Class and Other Tales of the Global Mix (University of Texas Press). The most substantial segment in this volume is the title piece, a novel of discovery and Brazilian emigration. Rheda's book Humana Festa, A Novel has veganism and the abolition of all animal exploitation as guiding themes. Academic Earl E. Fitz calls her short fictions "funny and poignant, but thought provoking as well." Scholar Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond considers her novel Humana Festa a pioneering work.

Translation of her works into English and other languages

This story was also published in Croatian (translator: Jelena Bulic) at Sic Literary Journal (University of Zadar, Croatia).

Original works in Portuguese

Novels and story collections

Children's book

Participation in anthologies of various authors

Translations into Portuguese