Authors Breadcrumb Separator Isabel Minhós Martins

Isabel Minhós Martins

author and head of text content at Planeta Tangerina

Isabel was born in Lisbon in 1974.

When she was a child, she wanted to be a journalist, an archaeologist or a pediatrician. She didn’t end up being any of those things, but she does love what she does.

“For me, writing is like digging: you always find something – sometimes worms, sometimes water, sometimes stones, roots, tunnels… a lost shoe.
I like writing because I almost always find something unexpected. And I like reading for the same reason: someone dug and dug and dug and found something that then they show us in words”.

She studied at the Lisbon College of Fine Arts, before working as a creative in children’s communication. Later, together with a group of friends, she founded the publisher Planeta Tangerina.

A number of her books have won prizes or been distinguished by institutions connected to the world of children’s books: White Ravens Catalogue, Andersen Prize, Banco del Libro, Portuguese Society of Authors (2015), Gustav-Heinemann Friedenspreis (2017), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (2017). She received nominations to the ALMA – Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2022 and 2023.

Many of her books have been published in other countries all over the world (France, Brazil, Korea, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Holland…).

From the press

Without wanting to fall into clumsy paternalism, in founding the publisher Planeta Tangerina, Isabel Minhós (…) put children’s literature in its right and proper place: one of surprising intelligence.

Gonçalo M. Tavares, Expresso, 2019