Specialty coffee and literature are the great passions of Milena Rodrigues, producer, journalist and, most recently, writer.
Milena is from Minas Gerais, from the city of Nepomuceno, she came from a family of farmers, in both father and mother sides. In fact, it is the fifth generation of coffee producers. Currently, the family is part of the Flor de Café project.
Milena left from Nepomuceno early, at age 13, to study. She moved to Belo Horizonte, studied journalism, collaborated with some magazines in Brazil, and she was an international correspondent for the Itatiaia radio from Minas Gerais, she had a brief passage through TV, press office of the State Government, etc.
In 2003, she began to publish a pocket magazine, Mininas, whose editorial format was very original, 10×10 cm. The magazine dealt with graphic arts and literature and was produced only by women. Being a small magazine, she started writing short texts.
In 2005, with the celebrations of the year of Brazil in France, the publication was chosen to represent the culture of Minas Gerais. Eventually she met her husband, a Spanish artist, who was responsible for the beautiful packaging of Flor de Café products artwork.
On her return, she went to Rio and started working in the publishing market.
Her first book, Mi Maior, was written on two nights only, and is filled with 42 short stories, an exercise in writing that Milena brings from the time working at the Mininas magazine.
“When the magazine was over, I had about three saved texts that I wrote for the upcoming issues. But we had to discontinue the project for lack of support”, says Milena.
The texts were written and rewritten many times until she decided to make a homemade edition, in a quick print shop, with the circulation of only 15 copies. “I just did it for friends. And then I decided to send to Ruy Castro, one of my great inspirations and whom I had the pleasure of meeting when I was working in the publishing market”, she says. He signs the back cover of the book, published by 7Letras.
As attentive as he is, he sent an email to Milena saying that he had loved the book. “As he is very judicious, then I thought you could publish. What happened earlier this year”, she recalls.
In spite of its connection with coffee production, this is a really urban, cosmopolitan book. “That was not my intention. I really wanted to be Jorge Amado from the coffee plantations, but it just did not happen. Who knows in my second work, which should be created next year, I can write about cafes”, she jokes.
Mi maior
Milena Rodrigues
Editora 7 Letras (Publisher)
94 pages
