Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing: Selected Poetry

by Nancy Morejón, Kathleen Weaver (Translator)

These poems by Nancy Morejon are the voice of the new Cuba, the Cuba born after the Revolution. In her lines, Nancy Morejon captures the rhythms, the sounds, the colors, the people, that make up the rich and complex texture of Revolutionary Cuba.

Genres: Poetry

92 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1985

About the author

Nancy Morejón (Havana, 1944- ) is a Cuban poet, critic, essayist.

She graduated with honors at the University of Havana, having studied Caribbean and French Literature, and she is fluent in French and English. She later taught French. She is a well-regarded translator of French and English into Spanish, particularly Caribbean writers, including Edouard Glissant, Jacques Roumain and Aimé Césaire, René Depestre. Her own poetry has been translated into English, German, French, Portuguese, Gallego, Russian, Macedonian, and others. She is as of 2013 director of Revista Union, journal of the UNEAC, Union of Writers and Artists; in 2008 she was elected president of the writer's section of Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC).

She has produced a number of journalistic, critical, and dramatic works. One of the most notable is her book-length treatments of poet Nicolás Guillén. In 1986 she won the Cuban "Premio de la crítica" (Critic's Prize) for Piedra Pulida, and in 2001 won Cuba's National Prize for Literature, awarded for the first time to a black woman. This national prize for literature was created in 1983; Nicolás Guillén was the first to receive it. She also won the Golden Wreath of the Struga poetry evenings for 2006. She has toured extensively in the United States and in other countries; her work has been translated into over ten languages, including English, Swedish and German.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revisiting for the first time since 2020, and Morejón's poetry explores with lyrical incisiveness a multitude of themes, all of which remain tethered together by the nation of Cuba. She especially centers the importance of her African roots and the contemporary state of Black people in Cuba and worldwide, drawing from the coalescence of her identities as a Black, Cuban woman and more broadly from the history of Africans who were violently enslaved and brought to Cuba, who resiliently forged their own culture in the face of brutal oppression. Her lens is both anti-imperialist and international, drawing connections between Cuba, Africa, Vietnam, and Oakland, highlighting the insidiousness of imperialism and white supremacy, while simultaneously celebrating the Revolution and mourning those lost in the long battle for popular democracy. She explicitly uplifts the communist cause and balances the burning rage and grief of past and current oppression with the hope for a better future for the world, already spearheaded by the Cuban Revolution.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a telling of Cuban revolution at its best. Smuggled stories of death and loving and poverty and family. I saw this beautiful woman read from this strong and willful collection of poems. You don't need to hear her read it though. It is strong enough as it is. I only know of one offering of this book through the Yari Yari Conference, New York, 1997. Poems are presented in both English and Spanish and so enjoyable in both languages.