She received the International Poetry Contest Giacomo Leopardi in 1960, the Gulbenkian Grand Prize for Literature for Children and Youth in 1986 and was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit in 2010.

Menéres' birth was on 25 August 1930,[1][2] in the family home located in the parish of Mafamude, Vila Nova de Gaia, North Portugal.

[3][5] Menéres and her family left Vila Nova de Gaia when she was aged six and relocated to the countryside about 10 km (6.2 mi) from the closest village.

[7] Menéres went on to work at Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) as Director of Children and Youth Programs from 1974 to 1986,[6][7][8] authoring and producing multiple programmes for the network.

[3] Menéres compiled collections of poetry such as Intervalo in 1952; A Palavra Imperceptivel in 1955; Agua Memória in 1960; Os Mosquitos de Suburna in 1967 and O Jogo dos Siléncios in 1996.

"[8] The Portuguese Minister of Culture said of Menéres: "A woman with an extraordinary and permanent commitment to education and the promotion of the pleasure of reading, she made making known to others a responsibility that surpassed her condition as a writer.