Itamar Vieira Junior was born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1979. He is a writer and geographer, and has a PhD in Ethnic African Studies from UFBA, the Federal University of Bahia. In October 2018, he won Portugal’s Leya Prize for his manuscript Torto Arado (“Crooked Plough”), published by LeYa Press in 2019. In 2018, he also was a finalist for Brazil’s Jabuti Prize for his book of short stories, A oração do carrasco (“The Executioner’s Prayer,” Mondrongo, 2017), published with a grant from Bahia’s Secretary of Culture. That book won the 2016-2017 Humberto de Campos Prize from the Brazilian Writers’ Alliance (Rio de Janeiro section), and second place in the 2018 Bunkyo Literature Prize, awarded by the Brazilian Society for Japanese Culture and Social Assistance. His first book of short stories, Dias (Caramurê, 2012), was winner of the Prémio Arte e Cultura (Literatura – 2012). He’s a columnist for the São Paulo Review.