Poet Reina María Rodríguez has won the National Literature Prize for this 2013. For her “high aesthetic, ethical and conceptual quality” the writer was chosen from among 18 proposals by a jury led by renowned writer Leonardo Padura.
Owner of a peculiar lyrical work by her apparent assimilation of traditional poetic sources but with a constant search for new expressive resources, the poet is a benchmark of the best poetry written in the last decades in this island.
Woman of refined sensibility, Reina Maria has worked as editor of radio programs and directed the Literature section of the Hermanos Saiz Association. She has won awards like the poetry “Julián del Casal” by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba in 1980 and 1993, the prize ” Plural Magazine” of Mexico in 1992 , and the famous ” Casa de las Americas ” in 1984 and 1998. Also in 1999, she received the Order of Arts and Letters of France, with the rank of Knight.
A few years ago, the House of letters project led by her in the Palacio del Segundo Cabo, was a must for anyone looking to find the best in literature that was done in Cuba and in the world. Her poems have been included in several anthologies and published in Latin American, North American and European journals, have been translated into languages like Russian, German, Portuguese and Italian, Vietnamese, and Arabic.
It is enough to start reading one of her poems to realize that the world of Reina is composed by a soft but precise matter. In her verses she speaks directly of such common things that are often beyond ordinary perception.
A world of sensations is revealed from the author white sheets, a sensory realm which is ultimately the natural space of the best poetry. As a good seamstress – is it an inherited sensitivity? – the poet knows how to choose the right word, so to choose a ribbon, like those who thread a stone.
We guess her embroidering a universe of connotations, with meanings traps, which open in the permanent passing of the verses.
