The Counterpunch (and Other Horizontal Poems)/El contragolpe (y otros poemas horizontales)
208 pages, 6 x 9
1 B&W illustration
Paperback
Release Date:15 Mar 2016
ISBN:9780817358136
The Counterpunch (and Other Horizontal Poems)/El contragolpe (y otros poemas horizontales)
By Juan Carlos Flores; Edited by Kristin Dykstra; Translated by Kristin Dykstra; Introduction by Kristin Dykstra
University of Alabama Press
Alamar, the home of award-winning Cuban poet Juan Carlos Flores, is the setting for his collection, The Counterpunch and Other Horizontal Poems) / El contragolpe (y otros poemas horizontales). Constructed as a self-help community in eastern Havana, Alamar is the largest housing complex in the world. Flores’s highly structured texts, organized into “art galleries,” present prose paintings of a big place in very small form.
Flores builds a poetic landscape with repeating structures that mirror Alamar’s five-floor walkups. Exploring life and dream on the flat surfaces of the poems, he gives fleeting glimpses of perception and survival at the urban margins. As the poet ages, so ages Alamar itself. Yet both find renewal through poetry.
The eighty poems in this bilingual edition offer the first English translation of a complete Flores collection. It will also be of interest to Spanish-language readers seeking access to Cuban literature abroad. Award-winning scholar and translator Kristin Dykstra has compiled an introduction in which she presents Flores, his literary contexts, and references in his poems. Because Flores made specific requests regarding translation, fascinating notes also clarify and expound on choices Dykstra makes in the English version.
A deluxe edition with a handmade, limited-edition color linocut print, including a letterpress-printed poem signed by the author, is available directly from the University of Alabama Press.
Flores builds a poetic landscape with repeating structures that mirror Alamar’s five-floor walkups. Exploring life and dream on the flat surfaces of the poems, he gives fleeting glimpses of perception and survival at the urban margins. As the poet ages, so ages Alamar itself. Yet both find renewal through poetry.
The eighty poems in this bilingual edition offer the first English translation of a complete Flores collection. It will also be of interest to Spanish-language readers seeking access to Cuban literature abroad. Award-winning scholar and translator Kristin Dykstra has compiled an introduction in which she presents Flores, his literary contexts, and references in his poems. Because Flores made specific requests regarding translation, fascinating notes also clarify and expound on choices Dykstra makes in the English version.
A deluxe edition with a handmade, limited-edition color linocut print, including a letterpress-printed poem signed by the author, is available directly from the University of Alabama Press.
Juan Carlos Flores is a well-known and widely respected Cuban poet. He won the 1990 David Prize, a national award for emerging writers, for his first book of poems, Los pájaros escritos. His second collection, Distintos modos de cavar un túnel, won the prestigious 2002 Julián del Casal prize from UNEAC, Cuba’s national union of artists and writers. His third book, El contragolpe (y otros poemas horizontales), was published by Letras Cubanas in 2009.
Kristin Dykstra, recipient of the 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship, translated Reina María Rodríguez’s Other Letters to Milena / Otras cartas a Milena for the University of Alabama Press in 2014. She has also translated two books by Cuban poet Omar Pérez and Angel Escobar’s Breach of Trust / Abuso de confianza.
Kristin Dykstra, recipient of the 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship, translated Reina María Rodríguez’s Other Letters to Milena / Otras cartas a Milena for the University of Alabama Press in 2014. She has also translated two books by Cuban poet Omar Pérez and Angel Escobar’s Breach of Trust / Abuso de confianza.
Related Titles
The World as Presence/El mundo como ser
By Marcelo Morales; Translated by Kristin Dykstra; Introduction by Kristin Dykstra
Breach of Trust/Abuso de confianza
By Ángel Escobar; Edited by Kristin Dykstra; Translated by Kristin Dykstra; Introduction by Kristin Dykstra
