{{Short description|Brazilian poet and political activist}} thumb|Gilka Machado (1917) '''Gilka Machado''' (1893–1980) was a Brazilian poet and political activist. She became known as one of the first women to write erotic poetry in Brazil; her work is usually classified as symbolist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://m.oglobo.globo.com/cultura/livros/pioneira-da-poesia-erotica-gilka-machado-tem-obra-relancada-por-jovem-20985765|title=Pioneira da poesia erótica, Gilka Machado tem obra relançada por jovem|date=2017-02-27|work=O Globo|access-date=2017-11-16|language=pt-BR}}{{Dead link|date=June 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Machado was also one of the founders of the Partido Republicano Feminino (Women's Republican Party) in 1910,which advocated for the women's right to vote.<ref name=":0" />
== Life == Machado was born in 1893, in Rio de Janeiro. She started to write poetry as a child. At age 14 she participated of a literary contest held by the newspaper ''A Imprensa,'' winning the three main prizes with poems under her name and pseudonyms.<ref name=":0" /> The critics were scandalized by her poems, calling her an "immoral matron".<ref name=":0" />
Her first book of poems, ''Cristais partidos'', was published in 1915. The book was prefaced by Olavo Bilac.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paginacinco.blogosfera.uol.com.br/2017/03/03/chamada-de-matrona-imoral-e-alvo-de-racismo-gilka-machado-foi-pioneira-do-erotismo-no-brasil/|title=Chamada de "matrona imoral" e alvo de racismo, Gilka Machado foi pioneira do erotismo no Brasil|last=Casarin|first=Rodrigo|date=2017-03-03|website=UOL|access-date=2017-11-16}}</ref> The following years, she published the books: A revelação dos perfumes (1916), Estado de alma (1917), Poesias (1915-1917)- (1918) and Mulher Nua, in 1922.
In 1933 she won a contest by the magazine ''O Malho'' as the greatest Brazilian woman poet of the 20th century.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://obviousmag.org/coisas_de_dri/2017/resgate-de-memoria-quem-foi-gilka-machado.html|title=resgate de memória: quem foi gilka machado?|date=2017-04-26|work=OBVIOUS|access-date=2017-11-16|language=pt-BR|archive-date=2020-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200105083906/http://obviousmag.org/coisas_de_dri/2017/resgate-de-memoria-quem-foi-gilka-machado.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Personal life == In 1910, Gilka Machado married the poet Rodolfo de Melo Machado (1885-1923), with whom she had two children, Hélios and Heros. Heros would become known as the dancer Eros Volúsia.<ref name=":1" />
As an adult, she supported her family by working for the Rio Railway Company.<ref>'Machado, Gilka (1893-1980)', in Claire Buck, ed., ''Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature'', 1992, p. 769</ref>
==Works== * ''Cristais partidos'' [Broken Crystals], 1915 * ''A revelação dos perfumes'' [A Revelation of Perfumes], 1916 * ''Estado de alma'' [Condition of the Soul], 1917 * ''Poesias (1915-1917)'' [Poems (1915-1917)], 1918 * ''Mulher nua'' [Naked Woman], 1922 * ''Meu glorioso pecado'' [My Glorious Sin], 1928 * ''Sublimação'' [Sublimation], 1938 * ''Velha poesia'', 1965
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|last1=Ferreira-Pinto|first1=Cristina|title=Gender, discourse, and desire in twentieth-century Brazilian women's literature|date=2004|publisher=Purdue Univ. Press|location=West Lafayette, Ind.|isbn=9781557533524|oclc=53896544 }}
==External links== *[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+locus+eroticus+in+the+poetry+of+Gilka+Machado.-a0194333503 The locus eroticus in the poetry of Gilka Machado]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Machado, Gilka}} Category:1893 births Category:1980 deaths Category:20th-century Brazilian poets Category:20th-century Brazilian women poets