Antonio Cisneros

While still a student he began to publish his poems, including the collections Destierro (1961), David (1962) and the prize-winning Comentarios reales de Antonio Cisneros (1964), the novelty of which assured his reputation.

It was further widened by Canto ceremonial contra un oso hormiguero (1968), for which he gained the Cuban Casa de las Américas Prize.

There he wrote his Como higuera en un campo de golf in which he sets personal pain as the starting point for a critical examination of his own time.

These include the Brazilian anthology of his work (Sete pragas depois 2003), as well as collections in Hungarian (Versei, Európa Könyvkiadó, Budapest 1978), Dutch (Commentaren en Kronieken, Marsyas, Amsterdam 1982), German (Gedichte, Vervuert, Frankfurt 1986) and French (Chant ceremonial contre un tamanoir, Editions Unes, París 1989; Les grandes questions celestes, Cahiers de Royamment, París 1990).

According to Alonso Rabí do Carmo, “the characteristics at the heart of Cisneros’ poetry are intertextuality and constant word-play; the simultaneous presence of the personal and the public or collective that achieves a new kind of epic discourse and dramatic harmony; the abolition of the false dichotomy between ‘pure poetry’ and ‘social poetry’ and the abandonment of any hint of provincialism or local reference, so as to situate the speaker within the poem in his own time, which provides the poetic individuality that is Cisneros’ trademark; the diverse use of the poem as a path to reflection and representation of the individual, the social and the cultural.