Rui Couceiro

Rui Couceiro was born in Porto in 1984. He worked in publishing for two decades, first in communications at Porto Editora and later as an editor at Bertrand, where he founded and directed the Contraponto imprint for ten years. The imprint became particularly known for publishing biographies written by novelists, many of which were highly successful with both readers and critics. He is currently the curator of BABELL, a literary and cultural event organised by the Fundação Livraria Lello with the support of Porto City Council. In its first edition, in 2026, the event brought authors such as Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Olga Tokarczuk, László Krasznahorkai, Julian Barnes, Byung-Chul Han, Héctor Abad Faciolince, Javier Cercas, Conceição Evaristo, Milton Hatoum and David Uclés to Portugal. They spoke to audiences of thousands in the city’s squares and streets, earning the event considerable praise from the international press: “El nuevo festival BABELL convierte Oporto en la capital mundial de la literatura” (El Mundo); “Oporto se convierte en la capital europea de la literatura” (ABC); “Porto: Europe’s new book capital?” (France 24). He is a member of the Cultural Council of the Fundação Eça de Queiroz and contributes to the magazine Visão. As an author, he published his debut novel, Baiôa sem Data para Morrer, in 2022. The novel received the Prémio Literário Manuel de Boaventura and was a finalist for the Prémio Pen Club Português. In 2024, he published his second novel, Morro da Pena Ventosa, which received similarly strong recognition from both readers and critics. In 2026, he published A Mais Bela Maldição, a collection of true stories about people who share a passion for books.