Fernando Venâncio spent his childhood in Lisbon and completed his secondary school in the northern Portuguese city of Braga.
He studied Philosophy in Vila Nova de Ourém and Theology in Lisbon.
In 1970 he moved to the Netherlands, where he eventually completed his studies in linguistics at the University of Amsterdam in 1976.
He is an accomplished author and a regular contributor to prestigious journals such as Jornal Literário, Ler and Colóquio/Letras, working as a literary critic.
Until March 2008, he was a regular contributor in the collective blog Aspirina B. Venâncio, although controversial in some issues, has expressed pro-reintegrationism views, referring to the relationship between the Galician and Portuguese languages.