Maria Rita Kehl was born in Campinas, Brazil. She was a journalist from 1974 to 1981, publishing articles in diverse newspapers and journals in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. She edited the culture section in the journals, Movement and Em Tempo, that opposed the military dictatorship. A Doctor in Psychoanalysis from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, she has worked since 1981 as a psychoanalyst in clinics for adults in São Paulo. In 2006, she began clinical work at the Florestan Fernandes National School of the Rural Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Guararema, São Paulo. In 2010, she received the Jabuti Prize for the best non-fiction book of the year for Time and the Dog. She was a member of the National Truth Commission from 2012 to 2015.