#31 Michelli Provensi, writer
'Get the cat off the chair'
Michelli Provensi was born in São Miguel do Oeste, in Santa Catarina, spent most of her youth in Maravilha, a small neighbouring city, and currently resides in São Paulo, Brazil. She is a writer and a model, and her first book, "Preciso rodar o mundo: Aventuras surreais de uma modelo real” [I need to go around the World: Surreal adventures of a real model] published in 2013, described her accumulated experiences in the fashion world. She contributed to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo with a fashion column published in zines and magazines such as L’ Officiel, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. In 2022, she published her first book of short stories, “Marinheira de açude” [Pond sailor], winning the second place in the Clarice Lispector Prize.
Where do you write?
I write down ideas in different notebooks, and when there is nowhere to escape, I sit and write at home.
What can we find on your table?
A mess: I've got no planets in Virgo. Stacks of books, paints, tarot cards, stones, candles, incense, a watch that doesn't work, and a compass, among so many things.
Morning writer or late-night words?
I'm a writer out of time.
Coffee, tea, snacks?
All the options and whatever else you have in the fridge.
What is your most tempting distraction?
Unfortunately, the cell phone. I have to hide it in a drawer.
What's that on the speakers?
I don't know where the speakers are.
Do you have any pre-writing rituals?
Get the cat off my chair.
Perfect bookstore to hide in on a rainy day?
I often go to Livraria da Tarde [in São Paulo, Brazil] because it's close to my house and I love the booksellers.
What is your most precious book?
"The Master and Margarita” [by Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov].
Favorite word?
Good question. For now, “açude". [Brazilian Portuguese for “pond”].
Dream writing spot?
A house in the mountains and a room of my own.
Three writers (living or dead) for dinner?
Italo Calvino, Aurora Venturini, Vinciane Despret.
A poem that changed your life:
It didn't change my life, but I really like Vietnam by Wisława Szymborska.