Jesus Jambrina

Una Isla Llamada Virgilio Jesus Jambrina

Publisher Marketing: This book celebrates the 100 years of Cuban writer Virgilio Pinera (1912-1979) through several studies that explore his poetry and narrative. The book also includes testimonies and literary pieces dedicated to the author, who is considered one of the most influential Cuban and Latin American writers of the late 20th and early 21st century. Pinera is internationally known as a playwright, however his poetry and narrative have not received the same attention from the critics and public, partly due to the manner in which his writings have circulated -most of his books were published late and in small editions or post mortem-, and also due the political censorship of his work by the Cuban revolution since the late 60s until the late 80s. While Pinera's theater was staged in the United States, Latin America and Europe during the 1970s and 80s, his short stories and novels had to wait until the late 80s to be reedited or even published in Cuba, for example his novel Rene's Flesh (1952) whose first Cuban edition dates from the late 1990s. After the censorship on his works was lifted, Pinera has increasingly received a well-deserved recognition. All contributors to this volume have studied Pinera's work for many years, while in the testimonies section both authors were friend with the writer in the last years of his life. The editor of the volume, Jesus Jambrina, has published one of the few books dedicated entirely to Pinera's poetry, several articles in academic journals. Jambrina published some of Pinera's manuscripts in Havana in the early 2000s, which made visible a period of the author's life and work that was virtually unknown to public, specifically Pinera's relationship with the Gomez Family (descendants of the Cuban patriot Juan Gualberto Gomez), who the writer visited from 1972 to 1978. The figure of Pinera emerging from those years is one of a writer totally engaged with his creation, his friends, and very active on sharing his work with the new generations, in contrast with the mythological image of a depressed Pinera living alone and forgotten at his apartment in El Vedado. This book also presents several poems dedicated to the author of The Weight of the Island (1943) by writers of the last four generations in Cuba, including, among others, Jose Lezama Lima and Severo Sarduy, as a way of showing the impact that the author has had across time. Today, Pinera is not only known as the most important playwright in Cuba, but also as a relevant poet, narrator, essayist, translator and editor, whose influence in Cuban culture is still evolving.