Omar Pérez grew up in Havana, the city where he was born in 1964, and earned a degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Havana in 1987. By his early twenties he had become an active participant in the city’s varied cultural scenes. His poetry and essays routinely appear in anthologies of new Cuban writing. Pérez is the author of four poetry collections: Algo de lo Sagrado (1996), Oíste hablar del gato de pelea? (1999), Canciones y letanías (2002), and Lingua Franca (forthcoming). A book of essays, La perseverancia de un hombre oscuro, earned him Cuba’s National Critics’ Prize for that genre in 2000. He is also a translator with numerous publications ranging from Shakespeare to Creeley and Komunyakaa, as well as Italian and Dutch writings. Currently Pérez is a percussionist for dance-theater performances, and his interest in artistic collaboration informs recent writing projects. Translations of his poems appear in Washington Square, boundary 2, Origin~Longhouse, Mandorla, The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry, and elsewhere; Jacket 35 carries an extensive feature on Pérez.
» More about Omar Pérez
Kristin Dykstra’s translations and commentary are featured in bilingual editions of books by Reina María Rodríguez and Omar Pérez, among them Did You Hear about the Fighting Cat?, Something of the Sacred, Time’s Arrest, and Violet Island and Other Poems. She is a 2012 NEA Literary Translation Fellow. Dykstra recently completed a mixed-genre book by Rodríguez, Other Letters to Milena, as well as poetry collections by Ángel Escobar and Juan Carlos Flores. Samples of her recent work appear in Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Asymptote, Bombay Gin, La Habana Elegante, and theHarvard Review. She co-edits Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas with Gabriel Bernal Granados (Mexico City) and Roberto Tejada (Dallas).
» More about Kristin Dykstra
