Feminist Hero Maria Teresa Horta

Portugal‘s most courageous and influential writer and feminist has died

Maria Teresa Horta’s influence extends beyond her literary achievements

Maria Teresa Horta’s influence extends beyond her literary achievements. She was a fearless advocate for freedom of expression and women’s rights. Together with Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Velho da Costa she wrote the groundbreaking Novas Cartas Portuguesas.

April 2025: Maria Teresa Horta, one of Portugal’s most influential writers and prominent feminists, died in February of this year at the age of 87. In a statement, her publisher, Dom Quixote, wrote Horta’s death was a loss of immeasurable proportions for Portuguese literature, poetry, journalism, and feminism, to which she passionately dedicated much of her life.

In December 2024, she was included in a list of the 100 most influential and inspiring women from around the world, drawn up by the British public broadcaster BBC, which includes artists, activists, lawyers and scientists.

In the early 1970s, Maria Teresa Horta became a defender of women’s rights and freedom at a time when it was dangerous to do so. Together with Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Velho da Costa she wrote the groundbreaking Novas Cartas Portuguesas (New Portuguese Letters).

Novas Cartas Portuguesas was based on love letters addressed to a French officer by Mariana Alcoforado and served as a bold manifesto against the prevailing ideology of Portugal before the ‘Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974. The authors denounced colonial war, the oppression of women, judicial persecution, forced emigration and fascist violence.

The book, published in 1972, which was banned and censored by Portugal’s fascist regime for allegedly offending public morals, made international headlines and inspired protests around the world.

In France, Simone de Beauvoir published the book. The trial of the authors (the Three Marys) was covered by the international media, including Le Monde, Time Magazine, The New York Times, Nouvel Observateur and US television networks. As a result, there were feminist demonstrations at various Portuguese embassies abroad, as well as a public defence of the work and the authors by several international personalities, such as Marguerite Duras, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch and Delphine Seyrig.

Maria Teresa Horta made her debut in poetry in 1960 with Espelho Inicial. The following year, she took part in Poesia 61 with Tatuagem, and her poetic work was published in Portugal (17 titles, including the innovative Minha Senhora de Mim, recently reissued) in Poesia Reunida (2009).

In fiction, she was the author of Ambas as Mãos sobre o Corpo (1970), Ana (1974), Ema (1984), Cristina (1985) and A Paixão segundo Constança H. (1994), and co-author, with Maria Isabel Barreno and Maria Velho da Costa, of the internationally recognised Novas Cartas Portuguesas (1972).

In 2011, Horta published As Luzes de Leonor, a novel about the Marquesa de Alorna, which won the D. Diniz Prize from the Casa de Mateus Foundation. In 2014, the year in which she was awarded the Career Consecration Prize by the Portuguese Society of Authors, she published a volume of short stories called Meninas. With books published in Brazil, France and Italy, Maria Teresa Horta was the first woman to hold leadership positions in the film industry in Portugal and is considered one of the most prominent feminists in Portuguese-speaking countries.

She published several texts in newspapers and was also editor-in-chief of the magazine Mulheres, which had a strong feminist and essentialist slant, at the invitation of the Portuguese Communist Party, of which she was a member for fourteen years between 1975 and 1989.

Throughout her career, Horta received numerous accolades. In recent years, she was awarded the 2017 Authors’ Prize for Best Poetry Book (Anunciações), the Cultural Merit Medal from the Ministry of Culture in 2020, the Casino da Póvoa Literary Prize in 2021 for Estranhezas, and in 2022, she was honoured as a Grand Officer of the Order of Liberty by the President of Portugal.

Maria Teresa Horta’s influence extends beyond her literary achievements. She was a fearless advocate for freedom of expression and women’s rights. Her poetry remains an enduring symbol of resistance, a testament to the transformative power of words, and a reminder that some voices can never be silenced.

Credits: Comissão para a Cidadania e a Igualdade de Género; Diario de Noticias; Portugal Decoded; The Portuguese-American Journal; Wave Network

Further reading: European capitals with women mayors | German women mayors remember the millions of Nazi victims | Europe lacks women mayors | Violence against women in politics |

Please follow us on