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by Legna Rodríguez Iglesias (Author), Abigail Parry (Translator), Serafina Vick (Translator)
Legna Rodr guez Iglesias has quickly become one of the most celebrated Cuban poets writing today. Her intense - often confrontational - poetry refuses to conform, subverting expectations and challenging social mores. Particularly arresting is her uncomfortable focus on the human body, which she dramatises in isolation, stripping it of context, making it strange and even obscene. Alongside poems of extreme descriptive vigour, Rodr guez Iglesias irreverently skewers the hypocrisies, clich s and hierarchies of our time. This selection offers a broad survey of Rodr guez Iglesias's work, drawing on eight previous collections in Spanish. Throughout, the poems are inflected with Cuban history and explore the tensions between the generation of the Revolution and her own. The consequences of poet's long-term residence in Miami are forcefully brought home through poems of emigration and estrangement. The playfulness and verbal dexterity that marks Rodr guez Iglesias's work in Spanish has been expertly brought to life in English by Abigail Parry, an award-winning poet whose debut collection Jinx was published by Bloodaxe in 2018, working in collaboration with bridge-translator and writer Serafina Vick. This is her second Spanish-English dual language edition, following Miami Century Fox (Akashic, 2017), winner of the 2016 National Poetry Series Paz Prize for Poetry.
Author Biography
Legna Rodríguez Iglesias was born in Camagüey, Cuba in 1984, and now lives in Miami. She works in a variety of genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, children's books and theatre. She won the 2011 Premio Iberoamericano de Cuentos Julio Cortázar and the 2016 Premio Literario Casa de Las Américas, in theatre. Her poetry titles include Hilo + Hilo, Dame Spray, Transtucé, Chicle (ahora es cuando) and the dual language collection, Miami Century Fox (Akashic Books, US, 2017), winner of the 2016 National Poetry Series Paz Prize for Poetry. Her other titles include the novels Las analfabetas, Mayonesa bien brillante, and Mi novia preferida fue un bulldog francés, as well as the short story collection No sabe/no contesta. A dual language Spanish-English selection of her poems, Un cuerpecito son muchas partes / A little body are many parts, is published in 2019 by Bloodaxe Books and the Poetry Translation Centre.
