Career
A writer from the favela. A reader of the world.
From Favela da Torre, in Diadema, to columns, book fairs and stages in Europe. A career built on books sold hand to hand, on texts written far from home and on bridges between languages.
Why I write
The quebrada is not a topic. It is a point of view.
I don't write about the favela as an outsider looking in. I write from it: from the body, from hunger, from the packed bus, from friendship, school and the poetry we improvise. That's how Inflorescência, Reservado and Da Quebrada pro Mundo were born.
When I arrived in Germany in 2019, my quebrada came with me. Every month I wrote for Itaú Cultural, comparing castles and favelas, Brennpunkte and peripheries, the police here and back home. Then came UOL Ecoa, Bossa FM and other stages.
An international favela writer is not a contradiction. It's just the name of the road I took — and the one I want more people from the quebrada to take.
In numbers
- 4
books: poetry, two novels and a bilingual Portuguese–German book
- 2,000
copies sold hand to hand in 2019 to pay for the move to Germany
- 3
outlets with a column: Itaú Cultural, UOL Ecoa and Bossa FM
- 3
languages I write, read and teach in: Portuguese, English and German
Timeline
The chapters that turned a kid from Canhema into a writer read on two continents.
- 1998
Favela da Torre, Diadema
I'm born and raised in Canhema. Son of a domestic worker and a security guard, I read with my father and find the first home for my words at Casa do Hip Hop, in rap and in poetry nights.
- 2016
Community journalism at Énois
A scholarship at Énois steadies my writing: I learn to turn what I lived into narrative and to tell the quebrada's story with method.
- 2017
Jabuti Prize finalist
As co-author of Prato Firmeza, a food guide to São Paulo's quebradas made by young journalists from the periphery with Énois, I reach the shortlist of the Jabuti, Brazil's most traditional literary prize.
- Until 2018
Behind the scenes at Laboratório Fantasma
I work as an assistant producer at Emicida's company and see up close how art from the periphery becomes work, audience and market.
- 2019
Inflorescência and Reservado
I publish the poetry collection Inflorescência and the novel Reservado, winner of ProAC Prosas. Reservado is launched at Itaú Cultural in São Paulo.
- 2019
2,000 books, hand to hand
I sell two thousand copies, one by one, to fund the trip. In August I arrive in Germany on a social-work scholarship and start the monthly column Da Quebrada pro Mundo at Itaú Cultural.
- 2020
Reservado in the hands of Portugal's president
At the Porto Book Fair, I sell and sign Reservado for Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal.
- 2021
Duocon, to the world
Duolingo invites me to tell my story at Duocon, the company's global event, on the same programme as Trevor Noah.
- 2021
A new edition of Reservado
Reservado returns to bookshops in a new edition by Arolê Cultural.
- 2022
Da Quebrada pro Mundo, the novel
I release my second novel, an Afrofuturist fiction written in Germany, with a foreword by Emicida and awarded by ProAC.
- Berlin
Bard College Berlin
On a scholarship, I complete my degree at Bard College Berlin, a few years after the hotel where I learned my first sentences in English.
- 2024
A bilingual column and CUFA Deutschland
I take the Da Quebrada pro Mundo column to Bossa FM, in Portuguese and English. In the same period I serve as president of CUFA Deutschland, the German branch of Central Única das Favelas.
- 2025
A UN award with CUFA
In Rome, I am one of CUFA's representatives at the UN SDG Action Awards, receiving the Resilience award won by CUFA Global.
- 2026
Querido Heinz
I release my first bilingual book, in Portuguese and German, funded by Brazil's PNAB (Política Nacional Aldir Blanc): a direct conversation between the quebrada and Germany.
Columnist
Since 2019 I have written from outside Brazil about what the quebrada taught me to see: inequality, racism, memory, belonging, and what it means to be from the favela on the other side of the ocean.
- 2019 — 2020Itaú CulturalMonthly column Da Quebrada pro Mundo, in partnership with Fundação Tide Setubal. My first texts written from Germany.Open
- ColumnistUOL EcoaAt Ecoa, UOL's channel about people who change reality, I write about education, the favela and immigrant life in Europe.Open
- 2024Bossa FMThe column goes bilingual, in Portuguese and English, to amplify voices and stories from the periphery across the Brazilian diaspora.Open
Da Quebrada pro Mundo at Itaú Cultural
A selection of published texts. All in Portuguese.
- 12 Aug 2019Qual é a semelhança entre castelos e favelas?
- 09 Sept 2019Aprendizados de um favelado na Alemanha
- 14 Oct 2019A polícia e as aranhas na cabeça
- 13 Jan 2020O Brasil – de fato – representado no exterior
Show 5 more columns
Four books, one question: who has the right to tell their own story?
- 2019
Inflorescência
Poetry
My first book. Poems from the quebrada, sold hand to hand to pay for the move to Germany.
- 2019
Reservado
Novel · Miudeza (2019) and Arolê Cultural (2021) · ProAC Prosas
The everyday epic of life on the periphery, told through the lives that pass by the windows. A boy from the favela who shields himself from violence through imagination. Launched at Itaú Cultural and carried all the way to Portugal's president.
See the book - 2022
Da Quebrada pro Mundo
Afrofuturist novel · ProAC · foreword by Emicida
When will Brazil's favelas become international? A country transformed by the colour vaccine against the virus of racism, seen through a love story between two young Black Brazilians.
See the book - 2026
Querido Heinz
Bilingual · Portuguese and German · PNAB
Migration, memory, freedom, mental health, racism, war and responsibility. My first book in the two languages I live in today.
See the book
Editorial design
The book as an object
My books are not just text. Each one has a graphic design rooted in the quebrada, by designer Lucas Rodrigues and team.
- Reservado · Miudeza · 2019
The lives that pass by the windows
The visual identity comes from looking at the small things around us: the roughness of dark asphalt, the speckled colours of bricks and, above all, the lives that live between glass and windows.
Lucas Rodrigues (design and art direction) · Gabriel Jardim (illustration) · Kahmi Oliveira (photography)
See the project on Behance - Da Quebrada pro Mundo · Editorial · 2022
A passport to the world
The cover starts from the blue Brazilian passport, personalised with lettering, as if it were the main character's travel notebook. Each chapter recalls a vintage train ticket, and the story grows out of a line by Millôr Fernandes: “Brazil has a lot of past ahead of its future”.
Lucas Rodrigues (visual identity) · Leandro Assis (cover and lettering) · Pablito (illustrations) · Renan Santa Terra (3D)
See the project on Behance
Stages and crossings
Literature born in Canhema has travelled to São Paulo, Frankfurt, Porto, Berlin, Rome and Duolingo's global audience.
- São Paulo · 2019Reservado launch at Itaú Cultural
My debut novel, launched at the institution that published my column.
Open - Frankfurt · 2019Frankfurt Book Fair
One of the Brazilian authors on the programme of the world's largest book fair.
Open - Porto · 2020Porto Book Fair
Reservado sold and signed for the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
- Online · global · 2021Duolingo's Duocon
My language-learning story told to the world, at the same event as Trevor Noah.
Open - Rome · 2025UN SDG Action Awards
One of CUFA's representatives at the UN ceremony, receiving the Resilience award won by CUFA Global.
Open - BerlinA Terceira Margem do Reno
Guest on Quatro Cinco Um magazine's podcast about Brazilians in Germany.
Open - DiademaDJA Talk
Back in the city where it all began, talking about literature and crossing borders.
Open
What has been written about this journey
Articles, interviews and profiles. Titles appear as originally published.
- Agência Mural · 2019Escritor de Diadema vende livros de mão em mão para ir à AlemanhaOpen
- Agência Mural · 2020“Nosso lugar é onde a gente quiser estar”, diz o escritor Alexandre RibeiroOpen
- Agência MuralA realidade de um favelado em uma universidade na EuropaOpen
- PublishNews · 2019Frankfurt discutirá a arte nos tempos de BolsonaroOpen
- PublishNews · 2019Autores brasileiros em FrankfurtOpen
- Duolingo · Duocon · 2021Depoimento no evento global da DuolingoOpen
- UOL Ecoa · 2022Da Favela da Torre, escritor foi pra Alemanha e criou curso de inglêsOpen
- Quatro Cinco Um · A Terceira Margem do RenoEp. 2 — Ninguém pode me negar o pertencimento a essa cidadeOpen
- AGEMT · PUC-SPAutor brasileiro leva literatura periférica “da quebrada pro mundo”Open
- Cena BerlimPerfil: Alexandre RibeiroOpen
A writer first. An educator as a consequence.
Everything on this page goes into Da Quebrada pro Mundo's lessons: the books become reading, the columns become conversation and the crossing becomes method.