Nancy Morejón

Like other Cuban writers of her time, Nancy Morejón’s poetry began incorporating political issues after the Cuban Revolution without making it outright propaganda. Morejón was fourteen years old when the Cuban Revolution ended. Although the revolution allowed her to further her education, she did not use her works as propaganda for the revolution’s ideologies, as was common during the 60s and 70s in Cuba. Nevertheless, the imagery and references in some of her poems, such as the ones from Richard trajo su flauta y otros argumentos, demonstrate the influence of the revolution on her work. It was during the 70s and 80s that her poetry incorporated more political themes. Overall, her works reflected one of the goals of the revolution, which was to get rid of legal inequality.

She has produced a number of journalistic, critical, and dramatic works. One of them is her book-length treatment of poet Nicolás Guillén. In 1982, she was awarded the Cuban "Premio de la Crítica" (Critic's Prize) for Piedra Pulida, and in 2001, she 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. Morejón's poetry has been translated into English, German, French, Portuguese, Galician, Russian, Macedonian, and other languages, and is included in the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby. In 1999, Howard University Press in 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. A collection of her poems entitled Richard trajo su flauta y otros argumentos (Richard brought his flute), edited by Mario Benedetti at Visor Books, was published in Madrid in the spring of 2005.

• Amor, ciudad atribuída, 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: Círuculo 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, Alcaldía 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, • With Eyes and Soul: Images of Cuba. Trans. Pamela Carmell and David Frye. White Pine Press, 2004, • Monographs: • "A un muchacho," "Niña que lee en Estelí", "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 Vigía, 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 río de Martín Pérez y otros poemas. Drawings and design by Rolando Estévez. Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1996