Machado de Assis (1839–1908), whose full name was Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, is regarded as one of the most important writers in Brazilian literary history. The grandson of freed slaves, he taught himself English, French, German, Greek and Latin, and he was the founder and first president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He is renowned for his novels, including Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881), Quincas Borba (1891), and Dom Casmurro (1899), though he also published essays, plays, and Portuguese translations of works by Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Edgar Allen Poe. A prolific poet, Machado de Assis wrote four books of poetry that he later compiled and republished as Poesias Completas (1901).

J. T. Townley has published fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translations in Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, The New York Review of Books, Slate, The Threepenny Review, and many other magazines and journals, and his stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times. He recently published a nonfiction book, Firsts Abroad (Rutgers University Press, 2026). He holds a PhD in Sociology from University College London, an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, and an MPhil in English from Oxford University, and he directs the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program at Oregon State University.

http://jttownley.com