Early years

Couto was born António Emílio Leite Couto on July 5, 1955 in the city of Beira, Mozambique’s second largest city, where he was also raised and schooled. He is the son of Portuguese emigrants who moved to the former Portuguese colony in the 1950s. At the age of fourteen, some of his poetry was published in a local newspaper, Notícias da Beira. Three years later, in 1971, he moved to the capital Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) and began to study medicine at the University of Lourenço Marques. During this time, the anti-colonial guerrilla and political movement FRELIMO was struggling to overthrow the Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique.

After independence of Mozambique

In April 1974, after the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon and the overthrow of the Estado Novo regime, Mozambique was about to become an independent republic. In 1974, FRELIMO asked Couto to suspend his studies for a year to work as a journalist for Tribuna until September 1975 and then as the director of the newly-created Mozambique Information Agency (AIM). Later, he ran the Tempo magazine until 1981. His first book of poems, Raiz de Orvalho, was published in 1983; it included texts aimed against the dominance of Marxist militant propaganda. Couto continued working for the newspaper Notícias until 1985 when he resigned to finish his course of study in biology.

Not only is Mia Couto considered one of the most important writers in Mozambique, but many of his works have been published in more than 20 countries and in various languages, including Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian and Catalan. In many of his texts, he undertakes to recreate the Portuguese language by infusing it with regional vocabulary and structures from Mozambique, thus producing a new model for the African narrative. Stylistically, his writing is influenced by magical realism, a style popular in modern Latin American literatures, and his use of language is reminiscent of the Brazilian writer Guimarães Rosa. He has been noted for creating proverbs, sometimes known as "improverbs", in his fiction, as well as riddles, legends, metaphors, giving his work a poetical dimension An international jury at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair named his first novel, Terra Sonâmbula (Sleepwalking Land), one of the best 12 African books of the 20th century. In 2007, he became the first African author to win the prestigious Latin Union literary prize, which has been awarded annually in Italy since 1990. Mia Couto became only the fourth writer in the Portuguese language to take home this prestigious award, having competed against authors from Portugal, France, Colombia, Spain, Italy, and Senegal. Currently, he is a biologist employed by the Limpopo Transfrontier Park while continuing his work on other writing projects.

Books

• Raiz do Orvalho (poetry, 1983)
• Vozes Anoitecidas (short stories, 1986). [Voices made night. Translated by David Brookshaw. (1990) ISBN 0435905708]
• Cada Homem É uma Raça (short stories, 1990) ISBN 9722100718
• Cronicando (crônicas, 1991) ISBN 972210585X
• Terra Sonâmbula (novel, 1992) ISBN 9722107909 [ Sleepwalking Land. Translated by David Brookshaw. (2006) ISBN 185242897X]
• Estórias Abensonhadas (short stories, 1994) ISBN 9722109332
• Every man is a race [Translation of selected works from: Cada homem é uma raça, and Cronicando; translated by David Brookshaw] (1994) ISBN 0435909827
• A Varanda do Frangipani (novel, 1996) ISBN 9722110500 [Under the frangipani. Translated by David Brookshaw. (2001) ISBN 0864863780]
• Contos do Nascer da Terra (short stories, 1997)
• Mar Me Quer (novella, 1998)
• Vinte e Zinco (novella, 1999) ISBN 9722112503
• Raiz de orvalho e outros poemas (1999) ISBN 972211302X
• O Último Voo do Flamingo (novel, 2000) ISBN 9722113348
• Mar me quer (2000)
• O Gato e o Escuro (children's book, 2001)
• Na Berma de Nenhuma Estrada e Outros Contos (short stories, 2001)
• Um Rio Chamado Tempo, uma Casa Chamada Terra (novel, 2002)
• Contos do Nascer da Terra (short stories, 2002)
• O País do Queixa Andar (crônicas, 2003)
• O Fio das Missangas (short stories, 2003)
• A chuva pasmada (2004) ISBN 9722116541
• Pensatempos: textos de opinião (2005) ISBN 9722116878
• O Outro Pé da Sereia (novel, 2006) ISBN 9722117955
• Venenos de Deus, Remédios do Diabo (novel, 2008) ISBN 9789722119870
• Jesusalém (novel, 2009)