Pablo G. Lleonart: «I Feel Doubly Proud»
For Pablo G. Lleonart, poet, journalist, and editor, receiving the Prize of the Digdora Alonso National Poetry Contest last August, during the inaugural gala of the 34th International Book Fair in Matanzas, was a pleasant surprise.
«The Digdora Alonso contest prize was a surprise. We always say that every prize is a surprise because one really doesn’t expect it. Generally, from the experience of other prizes, the winner is notified some time in advance so they can be at the ceremony.
«They kept it hidden from me until minutes before. Since I am also part of the organizing committee, I had to be at the gala, and they kept it hidden from me until the last moment. So it was a double surprise.»
The jury of the Digdora Alonso National Poetry Prize, on the 105th anniversary of the birth of the notable Matanzas writer, was composed of Mercedes Melo, Maylan Álvarez, and José Manuel Espino, who had the responsibility of evaluating the 57 notebooks submitted to the contest.
In Definiciones (Definitions), the author finds an original, suggestive way of offering the poetic texts. «Why Definiciones? Because aesthetically, when constructing it, the book is made up of several poems, and what I wanted was to play like when one opens a dictionary, finds a word, and then the definition of that word comes.
«That is how the book works too — that is, each poem has its title, but when writing the poem it is constructed visually and aesthetically as if that word is the poem and its definitions. Those were elements the jury highlighted with the theme of playing with the meanings, the signifiers of each of the words.»
According to the jury’s ruling, it is a «text that stands out for its meticulous work with language, where the derivations of signifiers of the word become a play from the piercing, as if infinite deconstruction confronted us with a poetry that questions and illuminates us — a powerful mixture between writing devices and the purity of emotion.»
«The book, sometimes directly and other times indirectly, is also a homage to Lorenzo García Vega, a poet from Jagüey Grande of the Orígenes Generation, better known among the writers’ guild but much less so outside it, whose centenary of birth will be marked next November, and I don’t want to let it pass unnoticed.»
Earning the prize of the Digdora Alonso National Contest, moreover, represents an immense pride for the young and multi-awarded writer. «It is a contest I have known for many years; I had even participated while Rolando Estévez was alive, I don’t remember the exact year.
«I have always kept it present because of the quality of the juries, of the previous winners, and also because of what the writer Digdora Alonso is — one of the most outstanding literary figures in Matanzas. The Casa de las Letras bears her name very deservedly.
«Also because in my years as a reader, one of the first books that marked me — I don’t know whether to call it an influence, let the critics handle that — but I believe that in some way my poetry connects with the book Bajo el hongo, by the writer and professor.
«That was one of the books I read in my formative stage — although I think I am still in formation — but when I was younger than I am now, and it has marked a certain part of my poetry, so I feel doubly proud to have a prize that bears the name of Digdora Alonso.»
Since its emergence thanks to visual artist and poet Rolando Estévez Jordán, the contest has been convened under the auspices of the Casa de las Letras that bears the name of the Matanzas poetess and professor, together with the Provincial Book and Literature Center.
