Nancy Morejón’s presence in Matanzas publishing houses.

The threads that interweave the city of Matanzas with the poet Nancy Morejon, National Prize of Literature, to whom the International Festival Puentes Poéticos 2024 is dedicated, began to be strung in 1989.

The threads that interweave the city of Matanzas with the poet Nancy Morejon, National Literature Prize winner, to whom the International Festival Puentes Poéticos 2024 is dedicated, began to be strung in 1989, 35 years ago, when the young Alfredo Zaldívar and Rolando Estévez decided to publish for the first time in Ediciones Vigía a plaquette with two of her poems.

While researching in the networks, I found out that the relevant writer has felt a peculiar attraction to see her works printed in Cuba’s Athens, with more than ten editions and reeditions over the years, signed by Vigia and its work collective, under the design of artist Rolando Estevez Jordan, who won the National Book Design Award for his work of excellent technique and beauty through the use of recycled materials and extracted from nature.

Among the most outstanding works produced by Vigía for Nancy Morejón are a translation of Édouard Glissant, Fastos, in 1998; Cántico de la huella, parchment, 2002; Ana Mendieta, 2004, with English version; Pierot y la luna, 2006, plus its presence in two anthologies.

Complicity that continued when Estévez opened the publishing house El Fortín in 2013 and inaugurated it with Dos mujeres y una isla, a poetic dialogue between Ruth Behar, a North American writer, and Nancy Morejón with texts by the one and the other in English and Spanish.

The artistic interpretation of her poem Amo a Mi Amo in 2014, by Ediciones El Fortín and its re-dimension by master Estévez at the level of an installation, exhibited at the Havana Biennial of 2022, at the Villa Manuela gallery of the UNEAC in Havana, had a singular repercussion.

The poet has also made her mark in the prestigious publishing house Matanzas, directed by the National Publishing Prize, Alfredo Zaldívar Muñoa, who in 2015 chose her anthological collection of poems entitled Cantares. Cien poemas de Nancy Morejón, which is among the most important titles that make up the catalog of that imprint.

The celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Cuban writer, from the 11th to the 15th of this month, during the five days of Puentes Poéticos, International Poetry Festival of the city of Matanzas, shows the honor that we feel the people of Matanzas with her presence and becomes an expression of the sensitive predilection that the author shows for this city, cradle of great poets and continuation of the lyrical tradition of her ancestors.

NOTES ON THE NATIONAL LITERATURE PRIZE WINNER

Poetess, essayist, journalist, literary and theater critic, and translator, such is the extensive career of this woman, essential in Cuban culture, who goes by the name of Nancy Morejón and despite so many attributes, lives in simplicity.

A poetic follower and admirer of the National Poet Nicolás Guillén, Morejón enriched the so-called black poetry, although her work goes beyond that because of her contemporary vision and her defense of women.

Her verses scrutinize the daily life of Havana, where she opened her eyes on August 7th, 1944, and the social project of her country, without forgetting the fusion of poetry with other arts.

With a degree in French Language and Literature from the University of Havana in 1966 and a full member of the Cuban Academy of Language since 1999, Morejon spoke exclusively with Prensa Latina about «that girl who was born in a neighborhood of Havana» and continues to love the city «to this day».

The 2001 National Literature Prize winner also referred to this moment of reunion in the United States with «so many longtime friends» who had «the great instinct to reconfirm their love for Cuba» and anticipated ideas about «those memoirs I am writing».

Her work, translated into English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Polish and Dutch, is especially appreciated in the United States.

At the age of 17 he published Mutismos (1962), her first collection of poems, followed by Amor, ciudad atribuida (1964), Richard trajo su flauta y otros argumentos (1967), Parajes de una época (1979), just to mention a few of his more than 15 titles of poetry.

Among her translations into Spanish are those of 20th century French-speaking Caribbean writers and intellectuals such as Aimé Césaire (Martinique, 1903-2008), Jacques Roumain (Haiti, 1907-1944) and Édouard Glissant (Martinique, 1928-2011).

During her stay in Washington D.C., Nancy held meetings with intellectuals, visited Howard universities and went to Morgan State, in Baltimore, Maryland.

In addition, twelve poems were recorded in her voice, now added to the 21 already in existence since July 2nd, 1979 in the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape at the Library of Congress.

Written by María Elena Bayón.