Pilot Impostor

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From a visual artist and award-winning writer, this book combines prose and images, drawing on the poetry of Fernando Pessoa and the history of air disasters to explore themes like con men, identity politics, leadership failures, privilege, the slave trade, and consciousness. In early 2017, during a flight from Cape Verde to Lisbon, the author began reading Richard Zenith's translation of Pessoa's works, reflecting on the recent presidential election and the prevalent notions of unfitness for service. He was struck by the opening line of Pessoa's poem, "I've never kept sheep/But it's as if I did," which resonated with his thoughts on colonialism and the racialized history of the slave trade. Pessoa's sole published book, Mensagem, celebrated European explorers, prompting the author to respond critically to his work. In Lisbon, he adopted a practice of reading a poem daily, meditating on it, and writing responses in various forms. This book emerges from that creative endeavor, seeking to engage with and reinterpret Pessoa's legacy while addressing contemporary issues.