Call for the 2026 América Bobia Poetry Prize
The Vigía publishing house calls for the annual América Bobia 2026 Poetry Prize, in which Cuban poets residing on the Island may compete.
Poetess América Bobia Berdayes was born in Limonar on August 14, 1893.
She died in 1984 with four published poetry collections, titled El amor de los humildes, Ofertorio, Trémulo se aleja, and Arquero de zodiaco.
Her verses are distinguished by their exquisite delicacy and poetic sense. In her honor, the competition will be held with an unpublished poem that must not exceed five pages, typed double-spaced in an original and two copies, accompanied by a pseudonym, and in a separate envelope or document the name of the work, the pseudonym and real name of the author, telephone, and address must be provided.
Excluded from the contest are those who won the competition in the five years prior to this edition.
The jury will be made up of the poet who won the previous edition, a member of the editorial board of Ediciones Vigía, and other prestigious writers.
The winner will receive three thousand pesos, and the Vigía publishing house will publish their work in a chapbook that will be presented during the Cuban Culture Day observance next year.
The jury may grant whatever honorable mentions it considers. Works must be delivered personally at Ediciones Vigía, Magdalena #1, Plaza de la Vigía, Matanzas, Cuba; or sent to the email edicionesvigiacuba@gmail.com or via WhatsApp to 55218770.
The admission deadline expires on October 10 of this year, and the results will be announced on October 20 at 11:00 in the morning at the Ediciones Vigía headquarters, at which time the winning chapbook from the 25th edition will be presented, which corresponded to the work Mientras Martí me contempla ¿orgulloso? by Maylan Álvarez.
POEM BY AMÉRICA BOBIA
No One Will Know
(published in the book Trémulo se aleja)
Everything is renewed;
everything will return,
but if you return
no one will know.
Extinguished candles will be lit again;
the one that lit one day
that one will not be.
Stars do not shine,
but they will shine;
the one that shone one day
that one will not be!
Looms weave
linen ceaselessly
for that dress
you will not wear.
If you return one day
no one will know;
you will not look for your place
nor try your bread.
When they come undone
in the aromatic grove
little golden stars,
others will sprout,
but if you return,
no one will know.
