Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Translated from the Spanish by Kristin Dykstra and Roberto Tejada, featuring an essay by Kristin Dykstra. "Omar Perez Lopez (1964-) was born in the city of Havana and has lived most of his life to date in Cuba. A former journalist, Perez has explored a wide array of literary genres, particularly poetry, translation, and the essay...At the center of SOMETHING OF THE SACRED is the exploration of displacement. Perez sees poetic metaphor as 'the subtle displacement of something objective'...His apparent strangeness, particularly in his varied uses of Zen traditions, has prevented critics from grouping Perez very comfortably into movements with other writers in contemporary Cuba..Perez has been connected most frequently with Havana's 'Generation of the '80s.' Raised under the auspices of the post-1959 Cuban government, this generation of writers had never experienced the island's earlier governmental or social system. Seen as the product of the Cuban social experiment accompanying the new government, they were raised to envision themselves as participants in a revolution of global resonance. By the 1980s, however, the most utopian elements of this vision had been complicated with a series of experiences suggesting the need for further critical thinking and reform"--Kristin Dykstra.

Author City: Havana CUB

Born in 1964 in Havana, Cuba, Omar Pérez López is a member of the first generation to live fully under the auspices of the island's post-1959 government: children raised to envision the present and future in socially experimental terms. His second poetry collection, Oíste hablar del gato de pelea?, or DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE FIGHTING CAT?, offered a mature, yet unusual, response to that ongoing challenge. The book was originally published by Letras Cubanas in 1998. Pérez' literary career ranges from poetry to essays and translations. His first book of poetry was the highly regarded ALGO DE LO SAGRADO (Havana: Unión, 1996), reprinted in a bilingual edition from Factory School with translations by Kristin Dykstra (New York, 2007). He was awarded Cuba's Nicolás Guillén Prize for Poetry for Crítica de la razón puta in late 2009, and early 2010 saw the release of his multilingual book of poems, Lingua Franca (Unión).