[act-ma] 8/20 Cuba on the Edge: Short Stories from the Island

[July 26th Coalition]

On Monday evening (Aug. 20th) at 8 PM, Club Passim (47 Palmer St.,

Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA.) will be having a celebration of Cuba
featuring Mary Berg's latest co-edited book of Cuban short stories
Cuba on the Edge: Short Stories from the Island, CCCPress, 2007) and
a wonderful band, Los Sugar Kings. Cola Franzen, Dick Cluster and Mary
Berg, three of the translators of the stories will be reading and will
also talk a little about other Cuban books they have translated
recently, and why they find Cuban fiction so fascinating. For more
information on the event, please contact Mary Berg mberg at fas.harvard.edu 

About Cuba on the Edge

Cuba on the Edge presents recent short stories by twenty-one of the
best writers on the island. The title refers both to Cubans' awareness
of living on the brink of an unknown future, and to the edginess with
which they negotiate their way through uncertainties. These twenty-one
perspectives reveal very diverse responses to the challenges of daily
life. Some stories are set in Havana, while others depict rural or small
town Cuba. Many analyze gender roles and gender politics, as well as
depicting economic stress and ingenious coping strategies. Some tales
are dark, while others are hilarious. Some voices remember the past, and
others imagine the future. Many stories address controversial topics:
prostitution, crime, exile, disillusionment, skepticism. But the
predominant tone is of reaffirmation of human ties and survival, and of
celebration of the complex strata of Cuban experience.

Mary G. Berg, Pamela Carmell and Anne Fountain, who have assembled this
collection, are professional U.S. translators and teachers. The first
met in Havana in January 2000 at a gathering of U.S. and Cuban writers
organized by Writers of the Americas and the Cuban National Union of
Writers and Artists, and they have been translating the work of
contemporary Cuban writers ever since.