Alberto Marrero Fernandez (Havana, 1956) is a poet and storyteller. He is the author of El pozo y el péndulo (Pinos Nuevos, 199La salvacion y el eclipsel eclipse he achieved an honorable mention from UNEAC in the Julian del Casal 1991 poetry contest. In 2003, he won the Hermanos Loynaz National Narrative Prize with the book Ultimo viento de marzo. His book Los ahogados del Tiber was awarded the 2004 Luis Rogelio Nogueras prize for short story from the Book and Literature Center of Havana. That same year, Union Editions released his collection La cercania infinita. In 2007, he published the short story collection Efecto Babel (Editorial Letras Cubanas). In 2009, he won the UNEAC Julian del Casal poetry prize and La Gaceta de Cuba short story award. In 2014, he won the Alejandra Pizarnik prize for the chapbook El salto mortal de la escritura, sponsored by Amnios magazine, la Casa del Alba, la Casa del Yeti and the Embassy of Argentina in Cuba. In 2016, he was awarded the short story prize from UNEAC’s branch in Villa Clara for El hilo y la cuerda. His poems and short stories have been published in Cuban and international anthologies and journals. He holds a master’s degree in History and is a member of UNEAC.
Anne James has edited and solicited work for Ploughshares, St. Petersburg Review and Zymbol, the latter of which she founded in 2012. She also served as Treasurer of the New England Poetry Club from 2012-2016. She now works as a freelance editor, literary agent, translator and publishing consultant. She can be reached at annejjames@gmail.com.
Laura Contreras was born in Cuban in 1995 and is currently pursuing undergraduate degrees in history and Chinese at Havana University. In 2017, she conducted tours for Chinese and Costa Rican visitors to Cuba. Contreras worked as an English-Spanish translator for UNEAC at the International Poetry Festival of Havana, also in 2017. She was employed as a Chinese-Spanish translator in a Cuban Factory for a company based in Shanghai in 2018. Contreras currently works as a private Spanish tutor and teacher.
Yma Johnson is a first generation Sierra Leonean immigrant who began her writing career in 1996 as a journalist in Puerto Rico. She has written articles on topics ranging from the criminalization of the mentally ill to Japanese swordsmanship. She is a master’s candidate in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University where she taught rhetoric and composition. She also taught a poetry at a women's prison. Yma won 1st place in the 2012 Current Magazine Fiction and Poetry Contest as well as an honorable mention from 2014 Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, the St. Petersburg Review, The Encyclopedia Project Vol. 3, an anthology of experimental literature. Her fiction was also anthologized in, “Cthulhu Lies Dreaming,” short story collection of works inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
Anne James has edited and solicited work for Ploughshares, St. Petersburg Review and Zymbol, the latter of which she founded in 2012. She also served as Treasurer of the New England Poetry Club from 2012-2016. She now works as a freelance editor, literary agent, translator and publishing consultant. She can be reached at annejjames@gmail.com.
Laura Contreras was born in Cuban in 1995 and is currently pursuing undergraduate degrees in history and Chinese at Havana University. In 2017, she conducted tours for Chinese and Costa Rican visitors to Cuba. Contreras worked as an English-Spanish translator for UNEAC at the International Poetry Festival of Havana, also in 2017. She was employed as a Chinese-Spanish translator in a Cuban Factory for a company based in Shanghai in 2018. Contreras currently works as a private Spanish tutor and teacher.
Yma Johnson is a first generation Sierra Leonean immigrant who began her writing career in 1996 as a journalist in Puerto Rico. She has written articles on topics ranging from the criminalization of the mentally ill to Japanese swordsmanship. She is a master’s candidate in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University where she taught rhetoric and composition. She also taught a poetry at a women's prison. Yma won 1st place in the 2012 Current Magazine Fiction and Poetry Contest as well as an honorable mention from 2014 Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, the St. Petersburg Review, The Encyclopedia Project Vol. 3, an anthology of experimental literature. Her fiction was also anthologized in, “Cthulhu Lies Dreaming,” short story collection of works inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.
One can mock the night, but never be able to work out his problems as Michaux guessed while he painted ideograms that were clear to him only under the effect of mescalin. To hide oneself in an open space you must alter the rhythm of your breathing or crush dried cactus until it becomes dust. To sleep in peace you need chiaroscuro and a sequence that brings you closer to the rain. Sounds are not as invisible as we think and the benevolent air of the dolphins can save us. Young writers (and old ones too) have learned not just to negotiate tickets to their own inner beings, but also to outer space where the earth is black. I like rice wine that the Chinese make in winter. Winter on this island is as fake as the scarves people use to simulate an ambiguous elegance. When I grind coffee instead of foreign peyote, I resolve some of dawn’s problems and my breathing becomes as easy as the yellow rice wine that I drink every time my few friends visit me.
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