Nancy Morejón: (1944), is one of Cuba’s most widely read contemporary poets. She was born to working–class parents in the old part of the capital and graduated with honors from the University of Havana where she majored in Caribbean and French literatures. Her poetry has been translated into many languages. She has been president of the writer’s section of the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists, was awarded Cuba’s Critics Prize (1982) and its National Prize for Literature (2001), as well as the Rafael Alberti Prize (2007). Her poetry collections include Amor ciudad atribuida, Mutismos, Piedra Pulida, Richard trajo su flauta y otros argumentos, and Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing, among others. Since 1999 she is a numbered member of the Cuban Academy of Letters.

Roque Dalton: (1935–1975), El Salvador’s best–known poet whose complete works have now been published in his home country. During his lifetime, he published 18 books of poetry and prose, including Taberna y otros lugares (Tavern and other places) in 1969, which won the Casa de Las Americas Poetry Prize. Twice he escaped death in El Salvador, once when he was scheduled for execution but the government of Colonel Jose Maria Lemus was overthrown and all prisoners were freed, again when he was in prison awaiting execution and an earthquake destroyed one wall of the jail and he escaped. The third time, however, he was betrayed, tortured, and murdered by his own revolutionary cohorts.

Fayad Jamis: (1930–1987), one of Cuba’s most cosmopolitan intellectuals, he was a painter, graphic artist, acclaimed poet, author of eleven books of poetry, and recipient of the Casa de las Americas prize in 1962. His work has been translated into twenty languages and his paintings displayed in over one hundred individual and group exhibits in Cuba and abroad. Born in Zacatecas, Mexico, he came to Cuba with his family at age six. His death was untimely, of cancer, at age 57. The poems reproduced here are by permission of the late poet and of CENDA (Cuban Center of Author Rights).

Juan Gelman: (1930–2014), the most read, influential, and renowned Latin American poet of our times, published more than 30 books of poetry and won countless awards including the Cervantes Prize (2007), the top literary honor for Spanish language literature. Both a literary and moral paradigm within and beyond Argentina, he worked as a journalist and translator, spent many years exiled in Europe and Latin America, and remained an ardent critic of imperialist politics and human rights violations throughout his life. The poems here belong to his collection Relaciones /Relations (Buenos Aires, 1971–1973).