The Great Zoo: A Bilingual Edition

By Nicolás Guillén

A fantastical collection of poems by revolutionary Afro-Cuban poet Nicol s Guill n presented in a Spanish-English bilingual edition.

Born in Cuba to parents of African and European ancestry, Nicol s Guill n worked in printing presses and studied law before moving into Havana's literary scene. A virtuosic maker and breaker of forms, Guill n rose to fame by transforming a popular form of Cuban music into poetry that called attention to the experience of Afro-Cuban people, and he continued to interweave his artistic and political commitments as he traveled the world.

Originally published in Spanish in 1967, The Great Zoo is a humorous and biting collection of poems that presents a fantastical bestiary of ideas, social concerns, landscapes, phenomena, and more. The "animals" on view in this menagerie include the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers, clouds from different countries, a singing guitar, a temperamental atomic bomb, blue-pelted police, a hurricane, the KKK, and the North Star, among many others. Translated by Aaron Coleman with a keen understanding of the contexts of colonial racialization, oppression, and exoticism, this bilingual edition stands as a testament to Guill n's carnivalesque vision.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226834794
• ISBN13: 9780226834795
• Release Date: October 2024
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.4" x 9.4"