Poet and critic Alcides Villaça was born in 1946 in Atibaia (São Paulo). In 1973 he became a lecturer in Brazilian literature at the University of São Paulo, where he has trained several generations of literary critics. At USP he wrote his Master’s thesis, Consciência lírica em Drummond (1976), and the Doctoral thesis A poesia de Ferreira Gullar (1984), both unpublished. His volumes of poetry include O tempo e outros remorsos (1975) and Viagem de trem (1988). As a literary critic, he wrote Passos de Drummond (2006), the result of decades of research on the work of the poet from Minas Gerais. A regular contributor to newspapers such as Folha de S. Paulo and O Estado de S. Paulo, Villaça is also the author of a book for young readers, O invisível (2011).