Flocks by Zurelys López Amaya and translated by Jeffrey C. Barnett

This is poetry from Cuba.

Flocks by Zurelys López Amaya translated by Jeffrey C. Barnett is published by Cubanabooks. This is a Book originally written in Spanish. This was published in 2017.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781944176082E12.

Flocks, by Zurelys López Amaya, is a Spanish poetry collection from Cuba, translated by Jeffrey C. Barnett, published by Cubanabooks in 2017. It is a Cuban collection where birdlife, movement, and collective attention become ways of thinking through vulnerability. The title suggests gathering, but also flight, and the poems can be read for the pressure between belonging to others and needing the open air. I would not approach it as a book that needs to be solved before it can begin working. Start with the title, the pressure of the translated line, and the feeling of a voice making room for itself in English. The value here is not just metadata or representation. It is the chance to let a particular book create its own weather, its own difficulty, and its own way of asking the reader to listen.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.