Giovanni Pontiero

Giovanni Pontiero (10 February 1932 – 10 February 1996) was a British scholar of Italian descent and translator of Portuguese fiction. Most notably, he translated the works of José Saramago and Clarice Lispector, two celebrated names in Portuguese-language literature.
Life.
Born and raised in Glasgow, after secondary school Pontiero went into seminary at Biggar and later at Ramini, Italy, but at age 24 decided to abdicate from a religious career. He graduated from the university of Glasgow in 1960 and completed his PhD while in Brazil at Universidade Federal de Paraíba, returning to Manchester to defend his thesis on Manuel Bandeira. In 1962 he was appointed lecturer in Latin American studies at Manchester. He was later promoted to senior lecturer and finally Reader in Latin-American Literature in the Victoria University of Manchester until his retirement in 1995.
Work.
Holding an academic position and translating, he not only gave students advice, but wrote about the translating profession. He was the principal translator into English of the works of both Saramago and Clarice Lispector, and met early acclaim for his translation of Lispector's short story "Amor", winning the Camões Prize for Translation in 1968. In 1993 he won "The Independent"s Foreign Fiction Award for the translation of Saramago's "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis" and the Outstanding Translation Award from the American Literary Translator's Association for the same author's "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" the following year; later receiving the Texeira-Gomes Prize for this same translation. He was amongst those to note Pandeism to be an influence on the writings of noted mid-twentieth-century Brazilian poet Carlos Nejar.
Pontiero's papers are held by the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.