Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

Poet, journalist, critic, translator, and university professor of Cuban origin. He is one of the most notable contemporary writers of the island of Cuba. In addition to Cuba, he has lived in Nicaragua, Colombia, and the United States where he is currently Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College.

He was editor and editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine El Caimán Barbudo, where he published numerous works on literature and film. His poems appear in numerous national and foreign publications. He has been the recipient of important awards.

He has published eleven books of poetry, many of them recipients of literary awards, including the "David" award (Cuba, 1980), the "Plural" award (Mexico, 1983), the "EDUCA" award (Costa Rica, 1995), the "Renacimiento" award (Spain, 2000), the "Fray Luis de León" award (Spain, 2005), and the "Leonor" award (Spain, 2006).

His poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Denver Quarterly, Mid–American Review, Chelsea, New York Quarterly, The Literary Review, Circumference, and many others at the international level.

He is Professor of Hispanic Literatures at Kenyon College, United States.

Poetry Collections
Cayama, David award, 1981.
Noticiario del solo, Plural award, 1987.
Cuarto de desahogo, 1993.
Los poemas de nadie y otros poemas, 1994.
El último a la feria, 1995.
Oración inconclusa, 2000.
Con raro olor a mundo, 2004.
Actas de medianoche, 2006.
Actas de medianoche II, 2007.
Todo buen corazón es un prismático: Antología poética, 1975–2005. Intro. Juan Gelman. (Mexico: La Cabra Ediciones-UANL, 2010)
Intervenciones: Antología poética. Ed. and Intro. Juan Carlos Abril. (Santander [Spain]: La Mirada Creadora, 2010)
Tareas (Seville: Renacimiento, 2011)
Reversos (Madrid: Visor, 2011)
Thaw/deshielos (trans. by Katherine M. Hedeen, Todmorden: Arc Publications, 2013)
Desde un granero rojo (Madrid: Hiperión, 2013)
Cuarto de desahogo: Antología personal, 1975–2010 (Havana: Letras Cubanas, 2013)
Deshielos (Granada: Valparaíso Ediciones, 2014)
Desde un granero rojo: poesía reciente (Quito: ElÁngelEditor, 2014)
Del arco iris y el relámpago (Anthology edited by Carlos Almonte and Juan Carlos Villavicencio, Santiago de Chile, Descontexto Editores, 2016)

Anthologies
En su lugar la poesía, 1982;
Usted es la culpable, 1985;
El pasado del cielo: La nueva y novísima Poesía cubana, 1994.

Essay
Cien años de solidaridad: Introducción a la obra periodística de Gabriel García Márquez (UNEAC Award, Havana, 1986).

Compilation and Foreword
La soledad de América Latina: Escritos sobre arte y literatura, 1948–1985 (Havana, 1990).

Awards
"David" (Cuba, 1980)
"Plural" (Mexico, 1983)
"EDUCA" (Costa Rica, 1995)
"Renacimiento" (Spain, 2000)
"Fray Luis de León" (Spain, 2005)
"Leonor" (Spain, 2006)
Rincón de la Victoria Award (Spain, 2010)
Jaime Gil de Biedma Award, Accésit (Spain, 2011)
Alfons el Magnànim Award (Spain, 2011)
Loewe Award (2015)
29th Manuel Alcántara Poetry Award from Málaga (2021)

Poetry in Translation
Anthologies of Rodríguez Núñez have been published in the following languages:
French (L'étrange odeur du monde, trans. by Jean Portante, Paris: L'Oreille du Loup, 2011)
English (The Infinite's Ash, trans. by Katherine Hedeen, London: Arc Publications, 2008, Every Good Heart Is a Telescope: Early Poems, trans. by Hedeen, Pomona: Toad Press, 2013, and With a Strange Scent of World, trans. by Hedeen, New Orleans: Diálogos Books, 2014)
Italian (L'ultimo alla fiera, trans. by Emilio Coco, Foggia: Sentieri Meridiani, 2011)
Serbian (Свако добро срце има облик призме, Песме, 1979–2011, trans. by Радивоје Константиновић, Novisad: Adresa, 2014)
Swedish (Världen ryms i en alexandrin, trans. by Lasse Söderberg, Malmö: Aura Latina, 2011)

Wide selections of his poetry have been translated into German, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Russian, and Slovenian.

Cultural Journalism
In the 1980s, Rodríguez Núñez was editor and editor-in-chief of El Caimán Barbudo, one of Cuba's most relevant cultural magazines, where he published dozens of articles on literature and film. A selection of his interviews with Hispanic poets can be found in La poesía sirve para todo (Havana: Unión, 2008).

He is currently subdirector of the Mexican cultural magazine, La Otra.

Literary Criticism
Rodríguez Núñez has compiled three influential anthologies that defined his poetic generation:

Cuba: En su lugar la poesía (Mexico: U Autónoma Metropolitana–Azcapotzalco, 1982)
Usted es la culpable: Nueva poesía cubana (Havana: Editora Abril, 1985)
El pasado del cielo: La nueva y novísima poesía cubana (Medellín: Alejandría Editores, 1994)

His monograph on Gabriel García Márquez's journalistic work, Cien años de solidaridad (Havana: Unión, 1986) received the Enrique José Varona Prize.

In 2011, he edited and wrote the prologue to the following anthology of Cuban poetry with the prestigious Spanish publisher, Visor:
La poesía del siglo XX en Cuba. Madrid: Visor, 2011.

Rodríguez Núñez has published several critical editions, introductions, and essays on Hispanic American poets such as:

La poesía sirve para todo: Confesiones y juicios de poetas hispanos. (Havana: Unión, 2008).
Oh, smog: Antología poética [with Katherine M. Hedeen]. By Juan Calzadilla. (Havana: Arte y Literatura, 2008)
Poesía. By Francisco Urondo. (Havana: Casa de las Américas, 2006)
Oda a Rubén Darío: Poemas selectos. By José Coronel Urtecho. (Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 2005)
La soledad de América Latina: Escritos sobre arte y literatura, 1948–1988. By Gabriel García Márquez. (Havana: Arte y Literatura, 1989)
Cinco puntos cardinales. By Z. Valdés, J. A. Mazzotti, E. Llanos Melussa, J. R. Saravia, and A. Desiderato. (Havana: Casa de las Américas, 1989)
País secreto. By Juan Manuel Roca. (Havana: Casa de las Américas, 1987)

Translation

Rodríguez Núñez is also a translator.

He has translated from English to Spanish:

Esto sucede cuando el corazón de una mujer se rompe. By Margaret Randall. (Madrid: Hiperion, 1999)
El silo: Una sinfonía pastoral [with Katherine Hedeen]. By John Kinsella. (Havana: Arte y Literatura, 2005)
América o el resplandor [with Katherine Hedeen]. By John Kinsella. (Guadalajara: Mantis, 2013 and Havana: Torre de Letras, 2006)
En esa redonda nación de sangre: Poesía indígena estadounidense contemporánea [with Katherine Hedeen]. By various authors. (Havana: Arte y Literatura, 2013 and Mexico: La Cabra, 2011)
La vida incesante y otros poemas [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Mark Strand. (Mexico: El Tucán de Virginia, 2013)

And from Spanish to English:

The Poems of Sidney West [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Juan Gelman. (Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2009)
Diary with No Subject [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Juan Calzadilla. (Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2009)
Garden of Silica [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Ida Vitale. (Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2010)
Blue Coyote with Guitar [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Juan Bañuelos. (Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2010)
The Bridges [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Fayad Jamís. (Cambridge: Salt Publishing, 2011)
Friday in Jerusalem and Other Poems [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Marco Antonio Campos. (Cromer: Salt Publishing, 2012)
The World So Often: Poems 1982–2008 [with Katherine Hedeen]. By Luis García Montero. (Cromer: Salt Publishing, 2012)

He is Associate Editor of the Earthworks Series of Latin American Poetry in Translation at the British publisher, Salt Publishing.