Waldo Leyva Portal

Writer, journalist, and poet.

He was born in Remates de Ariosa, municipality of Remedios, province of Villa Clara. Before the triumph of the Revolution, he was an agricultural worker. After 1959, he was a Theater instructor and History advisor. He held the position of director of Literature for the Provincial Council of Culture of Oriente. He studied a degree in Spanish and Latin American Language and Literature at the University of Oriente. He participated in the Cultural Congress of La Habana (1968) and in the international conference on student press held in Sofía, Bulgaria, in 1971.

He was director of the magazine Columna (Santiago de Cuba) and member of the editorial board of El Caimán Barbudo. In addition to the aforementioned publications, he has collaborated in La Gaceta de Cuba, Santiago, and in the Chilean magazine Hacia. He won the poetry prize in the Uvero Contest 1974 with his book De la ciudad y sus héroes. He serves as Director of the Iberoamerican Center for the Décima and Improvised Verse.

He has published the poetry books De la ciudad y sus héroes (Poetry Prize, Editorial Arte y Literatura, Cuba, 1976); Desde el este de Angola (Angola, bilingual edition –Portuguese-Spanish, 1976); Con mucha piel de gente (Ediciones Unión, Cuba, 1982); El polvo de los caminos (Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1984); Diálogo de uno (Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1988); El rasguño en la piedra (Ediciones Unión, 1995); Memoria del porvenir (Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1999); El dardo y la manzana (poetry anthology, Ediciones Sin Nombre, Mexico, 2000); La distancia y el tiempo (poetry anthology, Ediciones Unión, 2003 and Ediciones Verdehalago, Mexico, 2006); Otro día del mundo (Ediciones Avila, Cuba, 2004); Ocultas claves para la memoria (Ediciones Fósforo, Mexico, 2005); Agradezco la noche (Ediciones Cálamus, Mexico, 2005); De la máscara y la voz (Ediciones Cuadernos de Veracruz, Mexico, 2006); Breve antología del tiempo (Cuadernos el Vigía, Granada, Spain, 2008); Remoto adagio (Ediciones Unión, La Habana, 2008); Asonancia del tiempo (Fundación José Manuel Lara, Ediciones Vandalia, Seville, Spain, 2009); Los signos del comienzo (Monte Avila Editores, Caracas, 2009.

And the books Heredia: una lira romántica y un destierro terrible (essays on Hispanic American romanticism, Revista Santiago No. 7, 1975); Angola desde aquí (testimonial account, Revista Unión, 1985); Definitivamente jueves (CD of his musicalized poems, Estudios EGREM, La Habana, 2000); Perdono al porvenir (CD of his poems Ediciones Pentagrama, Mexico); and Regalo (CD by the group Trovandante that includes his musicalized poems and songs from Cuban trovador tradition).

He has also published several essays on poetry in Cuba and Iberoamerica and other literary and historical topics, in specialized books and magazines.

He has prepared the following anthologies: Poesía de Luis García Montero; Memoria del olvido de Juan Van Halen and La espiga derramada, canto a la República Española, a selection of Spanish and Hispanic American poets linked to the Civil War. He is part of various anthologies of Cuban and Hispanic American poetry, among others: Las palabras son islas. Panorama de la poesía cubana del siglo XX, Editorial Letras Cubanas; Poésie cubaine du XXe Siècle (Editions Patiño, Geneva, Switzerland, 1997); Poesía cubana (Litoral ediciones, Málaga, Spain, 1997); Muestra de poesía hispanoamericana actual (Diputación de Granada, 1998); La piel del jaguar. 25 poetas hispanoamericanos ante un nuevo siglo (Fundación José Manuel Lara, Vandalia, Seville, Spain, 2006). He is currently working on a new book of poetry and preparing the edition of two volumes of prose that include essays, interviews, and articles on various topics of art and literature.

His poems have been translated into English, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Bulgarian, Arabic, and other languages. He has given lectures on various topics related to Cuban and Iberoamerican culture and literature and recitals of his poetic work in: Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Brazil, United States, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Tunisia, Spain, Italy, and other countries in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. With the group Trovandante, he has participated in tours through Spain, Venezuela, and Mexico.

He has taught at the university level as a professor of Aesthetics and Cuban and Hispanic American Literature, and in journalism as founder and director of cultural magazines, among which can be noted: Del Caribe and Letras Cubanas.

For several years, he has taught workshops in poetic creation in Cuba and other countries. He is a graduate in acting and theater direction; he has written dramatic works and was founder-director of the university theater at the University of Oriente.

He has worked as an actor in film and in various theatrical productions. He has participated as organizer and speaker in multiple international events, among which stand out: Cultural Congress of La Habana (1969); International Meeting on Literature and Ideology (Mexico, 1979 and 1983); Congress of Spanish Language Writers (Mexico, 1980); Meeting of Poets of the Latin World (Mexico); First Congress of Sung and Improvised Poetry of Hispanoamerica and the Mediterranean (Almería, Spain, 1995); Iberoamerican and Caribbean Congress for Sociocultural Community Development and International Congress of Culture and Development. Iberoamerican Meeting of Poetry, Carlos Pellicer Cámara (as coordinator and speaker in all five editions: 2005-2009). He also participated in the conception and realization of the International Poetry Festival of Mexico, which was held in the Federal District in 2007. That same year, he was part of the invited poets at the Poetry Festival of Granada (Nicaragua).

Winner of the X Premio Casa de América de Poesía Americana in 2010, with the work El rumbo de los días