Dejar atrás el agua: Nueve nuevos poetas cubanos [Leaving the Water Behind: Nine New Cuban Poets] is a poetry collection published in Spain this year (Cosmopoética, 2011). Edited and introduced by Juan Antonio Bernier and Fruela Fernández, this volume presents new voices in Cuban poetry.

The collection includes authors René Coira, Teresa Fornaris, Eduard Encina Ramírez, Alejandro Ponce, Leymen Pérez, Óscar Cruz, Yunier Riquenes García, Legna Rodríguez Iglesias, and Karel Bofill Bahamonde. The poets are described as “Nine new (at least in Europe) poets born between 1970 and 1986 writing from the perspective of diversity, far from dogmatic posturing that in literary history attempts to identify authenticity using limitation.” Cosmopoética adds, “This book is filled with a variety of styles produced at the turn of the century that don’t lose sight of their uniquely intense Cuban heritage: from Lezama Lima to José Kozer or Lorenzo García Vega to the ‘Diáspora(s)?’ group.”

The editors of the collection explain, “What is presented here, does not aspire to be x-ray, but rather a perception of symptoms: a study of traces of recent poetry.” Although in Cuba there is no shortage of poets and poetry, “this anthology aims to show new voices that are beginning to define the lyrical face of the nation in a new context.”

For original post (in Spanish), see http://caracoldeagua-arnoldo.blogspot.com/2011/04/dejar-atras-el-agua-nueve-nuevos-poetas.html