Description
Poetry. Translated from the Spanish by Margaret Randall. "Margaret Randall's splendid translation of Cuban poet Reynaldo García Blanco's fine collection does what translation aspires to do. It gives North American readers access to a social vision and imagination that until now has been invisible. Neither autobiography nor socialist realism, García Blanco's work is shaped by whimsy in which the hypothetical becomes matter of fact. He writes, for example, about 'My uncle the employee' who 'gets up at 5 a.m.' as well as 'My uncle the unemployed' who is a 'capitalist by profession.' In 'Body Art' he asks, in ludic spirit, 'why are you looking at me?' This is probably not what North American readers would expect of a Cuban writer, but it is precisely what this art has to teach us." —Renato Rosaldo
"So, Gramsci, Marx, Stokely Carmichael and Thelonious Monk walk into a bar in Havana…a bar with the lightest of German beers…because light beers mean 'friend' in German. No, this is not the set-up for some sort of joke. This is the fantastic world of Reynaldo García Blanco. This is the Cuba I've never been to, but always wanted to go to. The Cuba I hallucinate about. This collection of poems reads like a dream journal with some of the pages missing. It is beautifully unpredictable in its balance of wit, wonder, one-liners and worldview. García Blanco's cat, Tamburlaine, was absolutely right. A country cannot prosper without music or food…or poetry." —Hakim Bellamy
Author Bio
Margaret Randall (Translator) is a poet, essayist, oral historian, translator, photographer and social activist. She lived in Latin America for 23 years (Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua). From 1962 to 1969, she and Mexican poet Sergio Mondragón founded and co- edited El Corno Emplumado / The Plumed Horn, a bilingual literary quarterly that published some of the best new work of the decade. Randall's recent titles include As If The Empty Chair / Como Si La Silla Vacia, The Rhizome as a Field of Broken Bones, About Little Charlie Lindbergh and She Becomes Time (Wings Press). Che On My Mind and Haydee Santamaria, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression appeared in 2015 and 2016 respectively, and a large bilingual anthology of Cuban poetry, Only The Road / Solo El Camino appeared in 2016, all from Duke University Press. Randall lives in New Mexico with her partner (now wife) of 29 years, the painter Barbara Byers, and travels extensively to read, lecture, and teach.
Author City: ALBUQUERQUE, NM USA
Reynaldo García Blanco is a poet and essayist. He was born in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, in 1962. He currently coordinates the Aula de Poesía (Poetry Classroom) literary workshop and writes for the radio. Among his books are: Perros blancos de la aurora and Abaixar las velas (1994), Adiós naves de Tarsis and Reverso de foto & Dossier (1995), Artefactos (2001), Instrucciones para matar a un colibrí (2002 and 2004), Acotaciones al libro de las horas muertas de Europa (2003), País de hojaldre (2004), Campos de belleza armada (2007), and Opus ciudad (2013). Campos de belleza armada was awarded the Milanés poetry prize in 2013. In 2017, García Blanco won the Casa de las Américas' prestigious poetry prize with his collection entitled Esto es un disco de vinilo donde hay canciones rusas para escuchar en ingle y viceversa. He is a member of Cuba's Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) and an honorary member of its younger sibling, the Hermanos Saiz Association.
Author City: Santiago de Cuba CUB