Gina Pinto
WRITER RESEARCHER EDITOR
Welcome to a Portuguese Affair!
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Gina Pinto is an Australian writer, editor, and researcher. She is passionate about capturing her Portuguese heritage and in 2002 started writing Partly Portuguese Almost Australian. This book would become the first of its kind in Australia.
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It was the result of four years of dedication, collecting and crafting the personal accounts of the Portuguese who immigrated to Australia.
In 2006, she was the recipient of an Award by the Portuguese Consulate-General in Sydney for her non-fiction book.
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The notion of 'Partly Portuguese' was created to reflect the Australian-born of Portuguese heritage; and 'Almost Australian' reflects the Portuguese immigrants who have become a product of their Australian lifestyle.
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A sequel to this book Partly Portuguese Absolutely Australian is forthcoming. This will be a platform for Australians of Portuguese descent to tell their stories, and Gina Pinto will be there to passionately capture them.​
Man of God
October Whispers
Chasing Shadows
Stamp-Size Estate
Deadman's Prayers
Only Fly Away
The Day Fado Held My Hand
I Forget
Five-Second Sin
Click on Portuguese Story Tiles to read the premises of these short stories
Non-fiction writer turns to fiction in 2020
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In 2020, Gina Pinto continues to collect stories, but now turns to fiction. Her preferred form is short stories. Like a Portuguese pastel de nata her stories hope to delight her readers.
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Gina creates stories with words like saudade and Fado to show her characters' yearnings and their connection to Portuguese roots.
Her collection of stories is another first in Australia, and she is the only writer to give this silent minority a voice.
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Every story has a snippet of a real-life moment. With the help of fiction the Portuguese flavour is interwoven throughout these Australian narratives. Read about a man who tells his Portuguese priest, “Why would I want to go to Heaven when all my friends are in Hell!”
These stories are a hymn to semi-autobiographical characters manipulated to unearth the unspoken words and the secrets Gina's mother told her not to tell.