Orlanda Amarílis

Amarílis began her career with her collaboration in the Cape Verdean magazine Certeza in 1944, and many of her short stories were included in various anthologies of Cape Verdean literature. After her work with Certeza, she contributed additional short stories to other magazines such as COLÓQUIO / Letras, África, Loreto 13. Many of her short stories are translated in Dutch, Hungarian, Italian, and Russian.

Orlanda Amarílis Lopes Rodrigues Fernandes Ferreira, known as Orlanda Amarílis (8 October 1924 – 1 February 2014) was a Cape Verdean writer. She is considered to be a noteworthy writer of fiction whose main literary themes include perspectives on women’s writing, with depictions of various aspects of the lives of Cape Verdean women as well as depictions of the Cape Verdean diaspora. She has been described as "indisputably one of Cape Verde’s most talented writers".

Orlanda Amarílis was born in Assomada, Santa Catarina, Cape Verde, on 8 October 1924. Amarílis is the daughter of Armando Napoleão Rodrigues Fernandes and Alice Lopes da Silva Fernandes. In 1945, she married Portuguese-Cape Verdean writer (born in Portugal) Manuel Ferreira, and the couple had two sons, Sérgio Manuel Napoleão Ferreira (born in Cape Verde) e Hernâni Donaldo Napoleão Ferreira (born in Goa). Amarílis belongs to a family of literary figures, including Baltazar Lopes da Silva and her father, Armando Napoleão Rodrigues Fernandes, who published the first Cape Verdean Creole dictionary in Cape Verde.