Pablo G. Lleonart: «poetry is my parachute».

«Vicente Huidobro, the Chilean poet, said that life is a parachute trip. In that journey poetry is my parachute, the most constant thing in my existence.»

«The bad thing about poetry is that it encourages you to write more poetry…»

Billy Collins

Pablo G. Lleonart was soon convinced of his vocation. Within the home the invitations to immerse himself in the literary world were not intentional, but subtly enamored the boy who today is a writer, journalist and vice president of the Saiz Brothers Association (AHS) in Matanzas.

«I owe my beginnings in literature to my mother, essentially, and I have to go back to my childhood, to the first years of elementary school. My mother is a school librarian and always had books in the house, I grew up surrounded by that world of readings.

«I would see her preparing her classes, reading, writing, sitting on the bed or in the living room and I wanted to imitate her. My interest in letters started that way, as a game. I had no idea what I was reading, but that helped me forge my imagination.

«When I was just seven years old, I was lucky enough to get a very important recognition: the special mention of the Pelusín del Monte award, with El mayor tesoro, where themes such as friendship and Cubanness are addressed from the vision of a child.

«That story was published by Ediciones Matanzas in 2004 and I keep that book as a treasure because, in addition, a selection of the winning stories of the contest was made and the book adopted the title of my story. Although almost two decades have passed, it still inspires me to continue in the literary world, it is a very meaningful memory for me».

During his school years, that child with expressive eyes and latent curiosity would end up surrendering to the inexhaustible universe of letters. His teachers were decisive in that decision.

«The passion for reading, for literature, has been present during all levels of education. I had the privilege of having teachers who have helped me in my academic formation, at the same time that they encouraged my desire to write and gave me the tools to do so.

«In elementary school, Orismay Hernández Ramírez was in front of my classroom, known for his meritorious work within the repentismo and, although he tried to teach me how to make décimas, my poetry was on other paths.

«In junior high school Yuniesky Arencibia, broadcaster for many years of Radio 26, owner of a vast culture, was my teacher and continued to encourage my interest in literature; the culmination was to meet during the pre-university Maria Isabel Tamayo and Ulises Rodriguez Febles, who taught me in tenth grade Spanish-Literature.

A journalist by training, this was not, however, the profession for which he entered the University of Matanzas.

«I have a degree in Journalism, but in 12th grade I had opted for Mechanical Engineering. That surprises those who know of my dedication to literature, although, equally, I have always been passionate about mathematics and science.

«Luckily I changed course in the first year of university, I opted for Journalism, which was closer to me, and now I link my literature with these concerns that also accompany me.»

Pablo G. Lleonart joined the Saiz Brothers Association with a theater text that he keeps tucked away in a corner of his bookcase. Gradually, his interest took shape towards narrative to, definitively, focus on poetry.

«Another important moment in my still short career was in 2019 when I won the prize of the José Jacinto Milanés Debate Contest, a long-standing contest in Matanzas, very important for Matanzas poets because writers of the stature of Israel Domínguez, Abel González Fagundo, Hugo Hodelín Santana have deserved it.

«For me it was a pleasant surprise to win it, also with a poem that has brought me a lot of joy. 1995 is a poem that I dedicated to the year I was born and that has led to an exchange with many readers who come to me explaining that their children were also born that year or that it was decisive in their lives for some reason. It might seem like an inconsequential year, but the poem manages to evoke a series of events and move people to that historical context of Cuba.

«Those who were by my side since my first steps thought I would be a storyteller, I think I am but, in the end, I ended up being more of a poet than a storyteller and that surprised the people who accompanied my journey because what I wrote throughout my childhood and adolescence was narrative, but poetry ended up catching me.

«The first time I wrote a poem, already conscious of the exercise of writing a poem, because there were others from adolescence that are very well kept so that they do not come to light, I could not leave it and to this day I am still in love with the verses.

«Actually, Alfredo Zaldívar and Leymen Pérez are also to blame for my writing poetry. My first poetic text was inspired by El perro de Goya, a hypnotic poem by Zaldívar, to the point that I listened to it and somehow I wanted to make, playing with the intertextuality of that poem, a tribute to the invisible dog of the legends of Matanzas. There was born the need to write poetry that never leaves me.

«Leymen was the first person to whom I showed my poem, he valued it and encouraged me to continue and to this day I am captivated by the magic of poetry.»

Winner of the Aldabón, Mangle Rojo, Quijote and Eliécer Lazo poetry prizes, and the La cola de la serpiente mini-story prize, as well as the Prometeo scholarship from La gaceta de Cuba, Lleonart’s works have been published in magazines in Mexico, Peru and Italy. He appears in the anthology La ciudad dormida. Young narrators from Matanzas.

«I have published the book Habitantes de Marte, Aldabón Poetry Prize 2019. As the poet, editor and translator Laura Ruiz Montes highlights in the back cover note, what she intends is to anchor in the tropics a translation of the universal.

«In that text you can also see the passion of a young man who began to study mechanical engineering for science because there are physical-mathematical poems, chemical, as I like to tell them too.

«My second collection of poems is titled El rumor de un lejano galope de caballos, Red Mangrove Award for poetry in 2020 and was presented in the most recent edition of the International Book Fair.

«I am always writing. Even if from the outside the public notices that some time goes by without publishing anything new, all the time I’m thinking about what to write. It is a constant creative exercise in my life. Vicente Huidobro, the Chilean poet, said that life is a parachute ride. In that journey poetry is my parachute, the most constant thing in my existence.»

Pablo G. Lleonart is a graduate of the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Literary Training Center and currently serves as vice president of the AHS in Matanzas.

Written by Jessica Mesa.