Things have been going well in Brazil. I have spent time in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Ouro Preto, and Petrópolis researching the life and writing of the American poet Elizabeth Bishop, who lived here on and off for over 20 years. I have been learning a lot about how Brazil and the Portuguese language affected Bishop’s writing. Another aspect of my research is the recent surge of Brazilian interest in Bishop. While here, I have interviewed playwright and journalist Marta Góes, who wrote /Um Porto para Elizabeth Bishop/ (/A Safe Harbor for Elizabeth Bishop/), a play based on Bishop’s life in Brazil with her lover Lota Macedo Soares from the 1950s through the early 1970s, Bishop’s Brazilian translator Paulo Henriques Britto, and director Bruno Barreto, who is currently working on a film based on the poet’s life.

The highlight of my trip was my visit to Casa Mariana, Bishop’s beatuiful 18th-century stone house set into the steep hills of Ouro Preto, a colonial mining town in the interior of the country. When I called to arrange a short tour of the house, Linda Nemer, the house’s current owner and Bishop’s good friend, responded with, “Of course you can come. Bring your bags straight here.” At first I thought I had misunderstood her Portuguese, but Ms. Nemer’s hospitality was not to be underestimated. The days I spent at Casa Mariana were full of reminiscences of “Elizabetchy” (the Portuguese pronunciation of “Elizabeth”), delicious mineiro, or “miner,” cuisine from the state of Minas Gerais, and new acquaintances from among Ms. Nemer’s warm circle of friends and family.

A great resource for researchers in Rio is the Biblioteca Nacional, which houses all books, dissertations, and periodicals ever published in Brazil and is one of Latin America’s largest libraries. The restrictions are that visitors are allowed to enter the reading rooms with just one notebook and a pencil, so be ready to do a lot of copying by hand. You can bring a laptop in but only for a limited period of time and without any accessories (no mouse or power cord).