He was a Professor of Journalism at the University of Porto and College of Journalism for 16 years.
Awards
Richard Zimler received the 2009 Alberto Benveniste literary prize in France for his novel Guardian of the Dawn. The prize is given to novels that have to do with Sephardic Jewish culture or history. It was awarded to him at a ceremony at the Sorbonne in January 2009. Five of Zimler's novels - Hunting Midnight, The Search for Sana, The Seventh Gate, The Warsaw Anagrams and The Night Watchman - have been nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, the highest value literary prize in the English-speaking world. His novel The Warsaw Anagrams was chosen as 2009 Book of the Year by the main Portuguese book magazine Ler and by the country's high school teachers and students. It was also chosen as one of the 20 Best Books of the Decade 2000-2009 by the country's foremost daily newspaper, Público. In August 2011, the San Francisco Chronicle described the book as follows: "Equal parts riveting, heartbreaking, inspiring and intelligent, this mystery set in the most infamous Jewish ghetto of World War II deserves a place among the most important works of Holocaust literature." In 2009, Zimler wrote and acted in The Slow Mirror, a short movie based on one of his stories. Directed by Swedish-Portuguese filmmaker Solveig Nordlund, the short stars Portuguese actors Gracinda Nave and Marta Peneda. In May 2010, it won the Best Drama award from the New York Downtown Short Film Festival. O Cão que Comia a Chuva, illustrated by one of the most famous and well-respected Portuguese artists Julio Pomar, won the prize for Best Children's Book of 2018 from the Bissaya Barreto Foundation of Portugal. In July 2017, the city of Porto awarded Zimler its highest distinction, the Medal of Honor. At the ceremony, Porto mayor Rui Moreira described the novelist as "A citizen of Porto who was born far away, who makes Porto greater and grander... Zimler projects the city of Porto out into the world and brings the rest of the world to us."
Other works
Zimler has also edited an anthology of short stories for which all the author's royalties go to Save the Children, the largest children's rights organization in the world. The anthology is entitled The Children's Hours. Participating authors include Margaret Atwood, Nadine Gordimer, André Brink, Markus Zusak, David Almond, Katherine Vaz, Alberto Manguel, Eva Hoffman, Junot Díaz, Uri Orlev and Ali Smith. In August 2011, Zimler published his first book of poetry: Love's Voice: 72 Kabbalistic Haiku. The verses in the book express Jewish mystical ideas and imagery in the form of haiku. Zimler has written five children's books that have been published in Portuguese: Maria e Danilo e o Mágico Perdido, Dança Quando Chegares ao Fim, Hugo e Eu e as Mangas de Marte, Se Eu Fosse and O Cão que Comia a Chuva. In December 2018, Portuguese singer-songwriter Pedro Abrunhosa released a new album featuring a duet with American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams for which Zimler wrote the English version of the lyrics. The song is entitled Hold Me. In 2019, Zimler published The Gospel According to Lazarus. Novelist Peter Stanford called it "a brave and engaging novel... a page-turner. I simply had to keep going to the very end in order to know on earth what would happen."
Personal life
Zimler has lived with Portuguese scientist Alexandre Quintanilha since 1978, when they met in San Francisco, California, They were married in August 2010, when same-sex marriage was legalized in Portugal. He has lived in Porto, Portugal since 1990. In 2002, he became a naturalized Portuguese citizen. In April 2019, Zimler wrote an article for The Observer describing how his brother's death from HIV/AIDS at a young age affected his writing and, in particular, the themes of The Gospel According to Lazarus. In June 2019, Zimler wrote an op-ed article in The Observer asserting that, in March 2019, his publicist told him that two cultural organisations in Britain had lost interest in hosting an event with him to promote his new book when they learned he was Jewish. The publicist asked not to be named and that the organisations not be identified. According to Zimler, his publicist said that talks over hosting him were cut off over fears of anti-Israel protests. According to The Bookseller, a trade publication that covers the British publishing industry, both The Observer and The Guardian had checked and confirmed the account. One Jewish writer queried why no other Jewish author had reported a similar experience in the UK.
