Against Heaven

Selected Poems

Loynaz Dulce Maria

Dulce Maria Loynaz (1902-1997) is Cuba's most celebrated poet. Widely published in Spain during the 1950s, Loynaz's poetry was forgotten in Cuba after the Revolution. International recognition came to her late: at the age of ninety she was living in seclusion in Havana when the Royal Spanish Academy awarded her the 1992 Cervantes Prize, the highest literary accolade in the Spanish language. In the first comprehensive selection and translation of her poems, James O'Connor brings to English speakers the haunting voice of this extraordinary poet whom the Nobel Laureate Juan Ramon Jimenez terms in his Foreword, "archaic and new... tender, weightless, rich in abandon".

The first English publication of her work, "Against Heaven" contains a selection of poems from each of Loynaz's books, including the acclaimed prose poems from "Poems with No Names", and a selection of posthumously published work.

About the Author

Dulce Maria Loynaz (1902-1997) is Cuba's most venerated poet. She was born into a cultured and wealthy family and studied law at the University of Havana. Her first book, "Verses 1920-1938", was published in Cuba in 1938, but her novel and subsequent books of poetry were published in Spain, where she enjoyed great success in Madrid's literary circles. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Loynaz chose to remain in Cuba despite the stigma that came with her family's wealthy background and despite the isolation that resulted from not joining the Communist party. With her poetry ignored and even censored for nearly thirty years, Loynaz lived in seclusion in her Havana home until the Royal Spanish Academy unexpectedly awarded her the 1992 Cervantes Prize, bringing her sudden international fame at the age of 90. The following year Cuba published her "Collected Poems", followed by her novel "Garden", written between 1928 and 1935, her essays, and her letters. She died in 1997.

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