Featuring the work of more than fifty poets writing across the last eight decades, Only the Road / Solo el Camino is the most complete bilingual anthology of Cuban poetry available to an English readership. It is distinguished by its stylistic breadth and the diversity of its contributors, who come from throughout Cuba and its diaspora and include luminaries, lesser-known voices, and several Afro-Cuban and LGBTQ poets. Nearly half of the poets in the collection are women. Only the Road paints a full and dynamic picture of modern Cuban life and poetry, highlighting their unique features and idiosyncrasies, the changes across generations, and the ebbs and flows between repression and freedom following the Revolution. Poet Margaret Randall, who translated each poem, contributes extensive biographical notes for each poet and a historical introduction to twentieth-century Cuban poetry.

Introduction  1
Nicholás Guillén  22
Dulce María Loynaz  30
Emilio Ballagas  40
Felix Pita Rodríguez  50
José Lezama Lima  56
Virgilio Piñera  64
Mirta Aguirre  72
Samuel Feijóo  80
Gastón Baquero   86
Cleva Solís  96
Eliseo Diego  102
Cintio Vitier  116
Fina García Marruz  126
Carilda Oliver Labra  134
Fayad Jamís  142
Pablo Armando Fernández  152
Roberto Fernández Retamar  160
Heberto Padilla  170
Antón Arrufat  176
Georgina Herrera  188
Lourdes Casal  198
Miguel Barnet  204
Basilia Papastamatíu  210
José Kozer  216
Belkis Cuza Malé  224
Luis Rogelio Nogueras  232
Nancy Morejón  238
Minerva Salado  250
Lina de Feria  256
Magali Alabau  262
Excilia Saldaña  270
Mirta Yáñez  278
Raul Hernández Novás  284
Luis Lorente  294
José Pérez Olivares  302
Soleida Ríos  310
Norberto Codina  320
Reina María Rodríguez  332
Alex Fleites  348
Victor Rodríguez Núñez  356
Marilyn Bobes  372
Alfredo Zaldívar  380
Ángel Escobar  390
Ramón Fernández-Larrea  400
Sigfredo Ariel  410
Alberto Rodríguez Tosca  418
Caridad Atencio  426
Omar Pérez López  432
Laura Ruiz Montes  438
Damaris Calderón  448
María Elena Hernández  454
Alessandra Molina  464
Milena Rodríguez Gutiérrez  470
Israel Domínguez  478
Luis Yuseff  486
Anisley Negrín Ruiz  494
Acknowledgments  501
Sources  505
 

Margaret Randall, editor and translator