Brazilian novelist Ana Maria Gonçalves was elected on Thursday to the Academia Brasileira de Letras, becoming the first Black woman admitted to the 40-seat institution since its founding in 1897. The 54-year-old author from Ibiá, Minas Gerais secured 30 of the 31 ballots cast, prevailing over a field of 12 rivals to occupy Chair 33, left vacant after the death of linguist Evanildo Bechara in May. Gonçalves is best known for the 952-page historical novel “Um Defeito de Cor,” which won the Casa de las Américas Prize in 2007 and has sold about 180,000 copies. Her election raises to 13 the number of female members in the academy and follows recent moves to broaden representation, including last year’s induction of Indigenous writer Ailton Krenak. In addition to her literary work, Gonçalves has held writer-in-residence posts at U.S. universities such as Stanford and Tulane, and teaches creative writing in Brazil. Her entry is viewed by scholars as a further step toward diversifying the body that guards Brazil’s literary canon.