Nancy Morejón (Havana, 1944- ) is a Cuban poet, critic, essayist.
She graduated with honors at the University of Havana, having studied Caribbean and French Literature, and she is fluent in French and English. She later taught French. She is a well-regarded translator of French and English into Spanish, particularly Caribbean writers, including Edouard Glissant, Jacques Roumain and Aimé Césaire, René Depestre. Her own poetry has been translated into English, German, French, Portuguese, Gallego, Russian, Macedonian, and others. She is as of 2013 director of Revista Union, journal of the UNEAC, Union of Writers and Artists; in 2008 she was elected president of the writer's section of Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC).
She has produced a number of journalistic, critical, and dramatic works. One of the most notable is her book-length treatments of poet Nicolás Guillén. In 1986 she won the Cuban "Premio de la crÃtica" (Critic's Prize) for Piedra Pulida, and in 2001 won Cuba's National Prize for Literature, awarded for the first time to a black woman. This national prize for literature was created in 1983; Nicolás Guillén was the first to receive it. She also won the Golden Wreath of the Struga poetry evenings for 2006. She has toured extensively in the United States and in other countries; her work has been translated into over ten languages, including English, Swedish and German.
Life history
She has read and lectured at universities throughout the country and has served as teacher at Wellesley College and the University of Missouri-Columbia, which, in 1995, conducted a two-day symposium on her work and published the papers in a special issue of the Afro-Hispanic Review. Howard University Press at Washington D.C. published in 1999 a collection of critical essays on her work: Singular Like A Bird: The Art of Nancy Morejon, compiled and prefaced by Miriam DeCosta-Willis, Ph.D. An anthology of her poems (Richard brought his flute) edited by Mario Benedetti, Visor Books, was published in Madrid during the Spring of 2005.
Themes of work
Her work explores a range of themes: the mythology of the Cuban nation, the relation of the blacks of Cuba within that nation. She often expresses an integrationist stance, in which Spanish and African cultures fuse to make a new, Cuban identity. Much of her workâ€"and the fact that she has been successful within the Cuban regimeâ€"locates her as a supporter of Cuban nationalism and the Cuban Revolution. In addition, she also voices the situation of women within her society, expressing concern for women's experience and for racial equality within the Cuban revolution; often black women are protagonists in her poems, most notably in the widely anthologized Mujer Negra (Black Woman). Her work also treats the grievous fact of slavery as an ancestral experience. Her work treats political themes as well as intimate, familial topics. Critics have noted her playful observations about her own people, her effective use of particularly Cuban forms of humor, and her regular "indulgence" in highly lyrical, intimate, spiritual, or erotic poetry.
Selected list of Morejon's works
- Amor, ciudad atribuÃda, poemas. Habana: Ediciones El Puente, 1964
- Elogio de la danza. Mexico City: La Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1982
- Elogio y paisaje. Habana: Ediciones Unión, 1996
- Fundación de la imagen. Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1988
- Grenada Notebook/Cuaderno de Granada. Trans. Lisa Davis. New York: CÃruculo de Cultura Cubana, 1984
*Mutismos. Habana: Ediciones El Puente, 1962
- Nación y mestizaje en Nicolás Guillén. Habana: Ediciones Unión, 1982
- Octubre imprescindible. Habana: Ediciones Unión, 1982
- Paisaje célebre. Caracas: Fundarte, AlcaldÃa de Caracas, 1993
- Parajes de una época. Habana: Editorial Letras Caubanas, 1979
- Piedra pulida. Habana: Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1986
- Poemas. Mexico City: Universidad Autónoma de México, 1980
- Poetas del mundo Latino en Tlaxcala. Tlaxcala: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala,1988
- Recopilación de textos sobre Nicolás Guillén, ed. Habana Casa de las Américas, 1974
- Richard trajo su flauta y otros argumentos. Habana: Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, 1967
- Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing. Trans. Kathleen Weaver. San Francisco: The Black Scholar Press, 1985
- Mirar Adentro/Looking Within: Selected Poems, 1954-2000 (bilingual edition, African American Life Series). Ed. Juanamaria Cordones-Cook. Wayne State University Press, 2002, ISBN 9780814330371
- With Eyes and Soul: Images of Cuba. Trans. Pamela Carmell and David Frye. White Pine Press, 2004, ISBN 9781893996250
Monographs:
- "A un muchacho," "Niña que lee en EstelÃ," "Soldado y yo." Toulouse: Caravelle, 1982
- Baladas para un sueño. Habana: Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, 1989
- Le Chaînon Poétique. (in French) Trans. Sandra Monet-Descombey. Champigny-sur-Marne, France: Edition L. C. J., 1994
- Cuaderno de Granada. Habana: Casa de las Américas, 1984
- Dos poemas de Nancy Morejón. Drawings and design by Rolando Estévez. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones VigÃa, 1989
- Lengua de pájaro. With Carmen Gonce. Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1971
- Poemas de amor y de muerte. Toulouse: Caravelle, 1993
- Ours the Earth. Trans. J.R. Pereira. Mona, Jamaica: Institute of Caribbean Studies, 1990
- El rÃo de MartÃn Pérez y otros poemas. Drawings and design by Rolando Estévez. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones VigÃa, 1996
References
- This article is substantially based on "Morejón, Nancy" at the Wayback Machine (archived February 7, 2005), by Elizabeth Coonrod MartÃnez for the Latin American Woman Authors Encyclopedia. Last accessed February 7, 2005
External links
- Nancy Morejón at poetenladen (poetshop)