rebel matter

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (Havana, 1955) is one of Cuba's most outstanding and celebrated contemporary writers, with over seventy collections of his poetry published throughout the world. He has been the recipient of major awards in the Spanish-speaking region, including, in 2015, the coveted Loewe Prize and most recently the Manuel Alcántara Prize. His selected poems have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Macedonian, Serbian, Swedish, and Vietnamese and he has read his poetry in more than forty countries. In the last decade, his work has developed an enthusiastic readership in the US and the UK, where he has published seven book-length translations. He divides his time between Gambier, Ohio, where he is currently Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba. More information at: victorrodrigueznunez.com

"This magnificent selection from two decades of work by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez confirms his pivotal position in international poetry. Dissolving fixed identities and formal limitations alike, the mercurial spaces of these poems reveal multiple selves, elliptical journeys and a passionate attention to everyday sensory experience. This is Cuban poetry energized by transcultural encounters, while two vital language currents of the Americas, Spanish and English, meet in Katherine Hedeen's scintillating translations. As 'rebel matter', these are poems that engage with the world in its elements - molten, fluid and restless. They invite the reader to tune in to new frequencies, not just to the sonic pleasures of language, but also to the lively matter of a universe beyond the human, its squirrels, asphalt, dust clouds and stars. Poetry's imaginative potential, Rodríguez Núñez reminds us, generates forms of dialogue that are more urgent now than ever: 'there won't be revolution / if we don't let night speak'." -Zoë Skoulding