Support

Cubanabooks Needs You!

Your tax-deductible donation can make a real difference in allowing Cubanabooks to fulfill its mission.

Please consider one of the following levels of support:

• $17.95 + tax each Purchase books for yourself, family, or for your book club
• $100-300 Sponsor the purchase of books for a student organization or classroom (you will broaden the horizons of young people who could not afford this opportunity otherwise)
• $100-1500 Provide backing for an author tour (you will be invited to an exclusive social event with the author)
• $500-$5500 Underwrite the printing of one of our new titles, partially or entirely (your name will be listed in the book’s Acknowledgements!)
• Or any amount is appreciated--even $5 buys needed supplies for us

2014 was a record-breaking year for Cubanabooks and our mission to bring first-class literature by Cuban women to readers in the United States! We came out with five new bilingual editions by preeminent writers:

• The Bleeding Wound / Sangra por la herida by Mirta Yáñez/ trans. Sara E. Cooper
• Address in Havana / Domicilio habanero by María Elena Llana/ trans. Barbara Riess
• Homing Instincts / Querencias by Nancy Morejón/ trans. Pamela Carmell
• The Memory of Silence / Memoria del silencio by Uva De Aragón/ trans. Jeffrey C. Barnett
• Always Rebellious / Cimarroneando by Georgina Herrera / trans. Juanamaría Cordones-Cook—printing of this book was made possible by generous donations from Sandra E. Beck, Lucy Alexander, Dawn Davis, Iraida López, Naomi Lindstrom, and Aydin Kennedy—thanks so much!

All the books were launched at the Feria Internacional del Libro in Havana in February, with authors and some translators in attendance, then donated to 23 major cultural institutions and literary critics on the island. The globally recognized Casa de las Américas has requested an official arrangement with Cubanabooks, through which we will provide them with all new titles, and they will reciprocate.

This year for the first time we published a Cuban woman residing outside of the island: Uva de Aragón, a well-known scholar of Cuban studies and one of the founders of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, has been very active in getting the word out about her novel. Three other Cubanabooks authors traveled to the United States this year—Mirta Yáñez, Nancy Alonso, and Nancy Morejón, participating in official launches and books signings in Miami, Massachusetts, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chico, California.

In this past year, Cubanabooks has enjoyed increasing support from students and prominent intellectuals in Latin American Studies. Dr. Naomi Lindstrom and Dr. César Salgado at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Iraida López at Ramapo College in New Jersey, and Dr. Sheryl Lutjens at California State University San Marcos have agreed to come on board in an advisory capacity for the press. Students from California State University, Chico have signed up for volunteer hours and internships in unprecedented numbers—in Fall 2014 twenty-three students worked on providing closed captions for videos, translating reviews from Spanish to English, initiating Twitter campaigns, doing outreach to bookstores and universities, and organizing educational events.

We are poised to go forward with the next round of publications; close to a dozen works are under consideration, and we have three projects in progress. First, we just accepted Desde los blancos manicomios [tentative English title The White Walls of the Asylum]; this novel by Margarita Mateo is a lyrical and troubling fictionalization of the author’s own experiences with scarcity, sickness, and insanity—in a style evocative of Virginia Woolfe’s Mrs. Dalloway. Translation of the complex, politically daring, and often hermetic poetry of Zurelys López Amaya, in her collection titled simply Rebaños/Flocks, is in the good hands of translator Jeffrey C. Barnett. Finally, for readers who like it when the hairs on the back of their necks stand up, we have short stories by Esther Díaz Llanillo: Sobre espíritus y otros misterios/ About Spirits and Other Mysteries. Reminiscent of Jorge Luis Borges or Edgar Allan Poe, these tales of the fantastic and supernatural are unnerving; preserving the chilling ambience is one of the challenges faced by translators Manuel Martínez and Monica Ayala.

In fall 2015 we hope to partner with Allegheny College to arrange a book signing tour for María Elena Llana, author of An Address in Havana/Domicilio habanero. Then in spring 2016 we plan to collaborate with the University of Missouri, Columbia, to invite Always Rebellious/Cimarroneando author Georgina Herrera. Taking Cuban authors on tour not only is fundamental in generating interest in their writing, but also it is one of the key ways that we can support the authors directly. The modest honoraria they receive for public addresses make an enormous difference in their standard of living back home, and the connections they make with readers here give them new energy and deep satisfaction. YOUR DONATION CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

Cubanabooks needs your help to make this all happen! The costs of author advance, artwork, design, and printing of each book range from $3000-$5500 each (depending on number of pages). The Cubanabooks portion of each author tours tends to be approximately $3500. Exhibiting our books at book fairs and academic conferences incurs additional expenses, as does sending books to potential reviewers.

Your Tax-Deductible Donation Can Make a Real Difference

All levels of support make a difference in Cubanabooks fulfilling its mission. Please consider one of the following levels of support and be recognized on our website (as well as receiving a letter for your tax return).

Consider These Levels of Support

• $17.95 + tax each Purchase books for yourself, family, or for your book club
• $100-300 Sponsor the purchase of books for a student organization or classroom (you will broaden the horizons of young people who could not afford this opportunity otherwise)
• $100-1500 Provide backing for an author tour (you will be invited to an exclusive social event with the author)
• $500-$5500 Underwrite the printing of one of our new titles, partially or entirely (your name will be listed in the book’s Acknowledgements!)

Truly, any level of monetary donation is gratefully accepted, whether earmarked for a specific use or given to our general fund. We also invite donations of goods and services that can be used in fund-raising efforts, such as raffles and door prizes. In-kind contributions, such as printing, editing, postage, or snacks for our volunteers are extremely helpful as well.

Cubanabooks press is proud to be a part of the movement to normalize relations between our two countries and open up a free exchange of ideas between our peoples. Please help us make this happen!