Richard Zenith in Caracas

Richard Zenith is an American-Portuguese writer, translator and researcher. He was born in Washington DC in 1956, but has been living in Portugal since 1987 and has also Portuguese citizenship. Zenith is considered an expert in Fernando Pessoa and was the winner of the Pessoa award in 2012. He organized the exhibition Fernando Pessoa - Plural como o Universo, dedicated to Pessoa's life and heteronyms, which was, no doubt, a huge success in Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon.

Zenith is currently visiting Caracas, Venezuela. He was invited by the Portuguese Institute of Culture (IPC) to celebrate its 29th anniversary.

There, he provided a compelling lecture in which we learnt a lot about Pessoa’s intimate life. The topic of the conference was the correspondence between Pessoa and Ofélia Queirós, a collection of letters that has recently showcased several interesting details about Pessoa’s personality and his curious love affair with Ofélia. 

Later, I was fortunate enough to attend a lunch in the embassy of Portugal where he was the guest of honour.

We were again very pleased to listen to Zenith’s many stories about Pessoa and Portugal, in general, in his very fluent and articulate Portuguese.