Featuring the work of more than fifty poets writing across the last eight decades, Only the Road / Solo el Camino is the most complete bilingual anthology of Cuban poetry available to an English readership. It is distinguished by its stylistic breadth and the diversity of its contributors, who come from throughout Cuba and its diaspora and include luminaries, lesser-known voices, and several Afro-Cuban and LGBTQ poets. Nearly half of the poets in the collection are women. Only the Road paints a full and dynamic picture of modern Cuban life and poetry, highlighting their unique features and idiosyncrasies, the changes across generations, and the ebbs and flows between repression and freedom following the Revolution. Poet Margaret Randall, who translated each poem, contributes extensive biographical notes for each poet and a historical introduction to twentieth-century Cuban poetry.

About the Author
Margaret Randall is the author of dozens of books of poetry and prose, including Haydee Santamaria, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression and Che on My Mind, both also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews
"Randall's collection of poetry is encyclopedic, including a vast stylistic range representative of a range of generations, some little-known voices as well as a number of LGBTQ writers. . . . Those that love poetry and are interested in seeing the work of Cubans, and especially those that also speak Spanish, should get this excellent collection." * Seattle Book Mama *
"This anthology serves as a broad, bilingual survey of Cuban poets born during the twentieth century. Special attention is paid to diversity, with women making up nearly half of the authors represented. While it's difficult to make generalizations about style with so many on display, the sum effect is that of a time-lapse shot taken over multiple generations that shows a kind of undeniable truth about the essence of Cuban poets and their craft." * World Literature Today *
"I recommend Only the Road/Solo el camino highly. It's a beautiful collection of poetry, some that has not been published in English translation and will be new to readers. It is also a corrective to the biased view of Cuban literature as repressed or propaganda depending on how widely published it is. We are opening up to Cuba finally, so it is incumbent on us to understand it better and how better than through its poetry." * Tonstant Weader *
"Including the work of Cuban poets living both on and off the island, this beautifully edited work is one of the most comprehensive volumes of contemporary Cuban poetry translated into English. . . . Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers."
-- Y. Fuentes * Choice *
"Impeccably designed . . . An anthology that is very representative of Cuba's poetic output." -- Marithelma Costa * Literature and Arts of the Americas *



Book Information
ISBN 9780822362296
Author Margaret Randall
Format Paperback
Page Count 528
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 703g