Sheisa Amaral · Literary portfolio

Reimagining fairy tales, legends and classics through the lives of women today.

I’m Sheisa Amaral, a Brazilian author of speculative fiction. My work reimagines fairy tales, medieval legends and classics of world literature, using reimagining as a lens to explore what it means to be a woman today — historical erasure, identity, motherhood, desire, power, violence and the struggle to author one’s own story.

Explore literary work

Adult fictionContemporary fantasyLiterary nonfictionChildren’s literature

Selected fiction projects

Stories about women, identity, power and the narratives that shape them.

Representation status appears individually for each project. Full synopses and sample pages are available upon request.

Moodboard for Anarchy in Neverland, combining British punk, Peter Pan imagery, music and feminist rebellion

01Complete · Seeking representation

Upmarket speculative fiction · cross-genre · contemporary fantasy · romance

Anarchy in Neverland

Complete manuscript in English · approx. 120,000 characters

After declaring that she is a fairy and jumping from a water tower in Liverpool, punk singer Christina Bell wakes up sharing her consciousness with Tinker Bell.

Set inside Liverpool’s punk scene, the novel follows Christina as the boundary between her identity and Tinker Bell begins to collapse. The familiar fairy becomes a lens through which the story examines adulthood, performance, female anger and the struggle to remain the author of one’s own life.

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In conversation withPeter Pan · British punk · feminist reimaginings

Identity · female anger · adulthood · performance · authorship

Moodboard for Evarista, combining Brazil, Coimbra, law, memory and historical imagery

02Complete · Seeking representation

Upmarket speculative fiction · cross-genre · time-slip · romance

Evarista

Complete manuscript in Portuguese · approx. 90,000 words

When a doctoral researcher begins investigating a woman erased from history, impossible connections between past and present force her to question identity, madness, and who has the right to tell another person’s story.

Set between Brazil and Portugal, Evarista follows historian Ana Isaac as archival research fractures the boundary between past and present. Recovering a woman remembered primarily as someone’s wife forces Ana to confront not only what history erased, but the authority of the person attempting to restore it.

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In conversation withMachado de Assis’s The Alienist · The Hours · Kindred

Themes: Historical erasure · women and knowledge · identity · madness · authorship · memory · justice · time

Brazil · Portugal · Coimbra · archives · time

Moodboard for Horror / Love Film Cycle combining classic horror cinema, Coimbra, film imagery, blood, romance and gothic atmosphere

03Work in progress · 4 chapters completed · approx. 12,000 words

Literary horror · cross-genre · romance · intertextual fiction

Horror / Love Film Cycle

A developing cycle of stories in which horror films become a language for desire, intimacy and the fears people bring into love.

Moving through different films and emotional registers, the project brings literary horror into conversation with romance, cinema and adult relationships. Its structure uses film as more than reference: each story tests what changes when characters begin to recognise themselves inside the narratives they consume.

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In conversation withHorror cinema · film cycles · intertextual fiction

Horror · romance · cinema · intimacy · intertextuality

Selected writing

Read the voice behind the projects.

Complete stories and carefully chosen excerpts in English, including translations of awarded and published work. This collection is designed to grow as new samples become ready.

Enter the reading room

Chronicle · literary fiction

The Poncho

English translationLiterary distinction · Off Flip Prize 2026 · Selo Off FlipRead the chronicle

Creative nonfiction · personal essay

What Color Am I?

English translationLiterary distinction · Nós 3: Texts by Women · Selo Off FlipRead the chronicle

Short story · speculative fiction

Pink Bib

Babador Rosa

English translationMotherhood, guilt and a sinister bargainRead the story

Creative nonfiction · personal chronicle

The Book Alley

Beco dos Livros

English translationPorto Alegre bookshops, youth and the passage of timeRead the chronicle

Some of my Portuguese-language literary work has been translated into English by Luísa Schenato, a long-term collaborator who has accompanied both my literary and academic writing for more than seven years.

Writing across media

Stories written to be watched, played and heard.

Screenwriting, audiovisual production and interactive narrative bring together story, visual language, research and accessibility.

Featured film & video work

Selected projects with real images, credits and recognition.

Screenwriting and audiovisual projects shaped by adaptation, intertextuality and experimentation across live action and animation.

Animated music video · 2010

The Apple and Me

An animated music video created for the band Cabala, bringing an original screenplay into a tactile visual world shaped through collaboration with director Alan Bittencourt.

Credit: Screenwriter · created with director Alan Bittencourt for the band Cabala
Recognition: Best National Music Video — 9th Santa Maria Vídeo e Cinema · Official selection — Anima Mundi, Gramado Cine Vídeo, MUMIA and VII PUTZ

View festival programme

Short film · 2010

The Bet

A contemporary short-film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe, developed from a story co-created with Alan Bittencourt.

Credit: Story co-creator with Alan Bittencourt · adapted from Edgar Allan Poe
Recognition: Best Fiction Short — 27th SET Universitário / PUCRS · Official selection — Gramado Cine Vídeo and the 15th Brazilian University Film Festival

Read the project paper

Additional selected credits

Animated short

Two Gauchos and an Alien

Screenwriting and audiovisual production

Short film

Inspiration

Selected for the 15th Brazilian University Film Festival

Music video

Thinking of You

Rafael Barreto

View complete credits in the academic CV

Games & interactive narrative

Worlds built through choice, play and access.

Educational and collaborative game projects with Sheisa’s professional role clearly identified in each credit.

Screenshot from Can You Escape? showing a pink-haired character, an illustrated room and an inventory interface

01Point-and-click game

Narrative conception · game writing · project development

Can You Escape?

A point-and-click project in which exploration, environmental clues and puzzle-led progression carry the narrative.

Key art for TELL!, with illustrated cards about energy, media and collaborative storytelling

02Collaborative storytelling game

Narrative conception · game writing · co-author · educational game development

TELL!

A creative-learning project that turns collective storytelling about sustainable energy into an educational game experience.

Screenshot from Planet ODS showing an astronaut exploring an illustrated urban waste site

03Accessible educational game

Narrative conception · game writing · product owner · product management · team coordination

Planet ODS

An accessible educational game designed for school audiences, combining exploration, problem-solving and narrative progression.

Read the project paper

Academic work

Research entered the writing — and stayed.

My academic work has been published and presented internationally, across research networks, conferences and editorial projects in different countries. Moving through culture, representation, accessibility, digital games and popular fiction, it explores questions that also shape my literary work: identity, exclusion, representation and the ways familiar narratives can be read from new perspectives.

Featured research

2024 · Portuguese

Transcending the Margins: Reflections on Lesbian and Cyborg Representations in Doctor Who

Cadernos de Gênero e Diversidade · pp. 35–70

2022 · English

Accessible Digital Game: Planet ODS

AHFE International · Ergonomics in Design · pp. 423–429

DOI / publication link

Selected publications

2022 · English

Accessibility Features in Digital Games that Provide a Better User-Experience for Deaf Players

CRC Press · Handbook of Usability and User-Experience · pp. 135–156

DOI / publication link

2022 · English

The Use of Assistive Technologies for Blind Students in Virtual Museums as a Possibility in Teaching

IGI Global · Assistive Technologies for Differently Abled Students · pp. 212–238

DOI / publication link

Popular culture as research material

Doctor Who · The Last of Us Part II · Spider-Man · horror cinema · Grindhouse · music videos · digital games

About

Writer first. Researcher and educator, too.

Sheisa Amaral is a Brazilian author whose work moves across fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, audiovisual storytelling and game writing. She writes women who confront inherited stories and claim the right to define themselves.

Creative territory

Speculative fiction · feminist fiction · fairy-tale and literary reimaginings · parallel realities · time travel · New Weird · romance

Books that shaped me

The Little Prince · The Alienist · The Alchemist · Brida · The Ocean at the End of the Lane · Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Film

Dracula (1931) · Resolution · The Endless · Back to the Future trilogy · The Matrix · Labyrinth (1986)

Television

The OA · Star Trek · The Leftovers · The X-Files · Doctor Who

Games

Rusty Lake series · Fran Bow · The Dream Machine · Samorost

Sheisa Amaral

Alongside her literary practice, Sheisa is a researcher and professor. She holds a PhD in Cultural Diversity and Social Inclusion, an MA in Communication Sciences and a BA in Graphic Design, including a period of study at the University of Coimbra. Her university teaching includes creative writing, screenwriting and audiovisual narrative. Her research spans communication, culture, digital media, gender, accessibility, digital games and narrative design, with work published and presented internationally.

2024: PhD in Cultural Diversity and Social Inclusion · Feevale University
2019: MA in Communication Sciences · Unisinos
2014: BA in Graphic Design · Feevale University / University of Coimbra

Literary representation

Let’s talk about these stories.

Sheisa is seeking representation for adult fiction, speculative fiction, literary reimaginings and cross-genre projects. Synopses and sample pages are available upon request.

Email Sheisa @sheisabittencourt View full academic background