The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520258945)

Cuba's cultural influence throughout the Western Hemisphere, and especially in the United States, has been disproportionally large for so small a country. This landmark volume is the first comprehensive overview of poetry written over the past sixty years. Presented in a beautiful Spanish-English en face edition, The Whole Island makes available the astonishing achievement of a wide range of Cuban poets, including such well-known figures as Nicolás Guillén, José Lezama Lima, and Nancy Morejón, but also poets widely read in Spanish who remain almost unknown to the English-speaking world--among them Fina García Marruz, José Kozer, Raúl Hernández Novás, and Ángel Escobar--and poets born since the Revolution, like Rogelio Saunders, Omar Pérez, Alessandra Molina, and Javier Marimón. The translations, almost all of them new, convey the intensity and beauty of the accompanying Spanish originals. With their work deeply rooted in Cuban culture, many of these poets--both on and off the island--have been at the center of the political and social changes of this tempestuous period. The poems offered here constitute an essential source for understanding the literature and culture of Cuba, its diaspora, and the Caribbean at large, and provide an unparalleled perspective on what it means to be Cuban.

Author: Mark Weiss
ISBN-10: 0520258940
ISBN-13: 9780520258945
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 11/25/2009
Pages: 624
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.90lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.90w x 1.70d

Review Citation(s):
Criticas 03/01/2010 pg. 1
Choice 06/01/2010
Multicultural Review 08/01/2010 pg. 42