Praises & Offenses
Three Women Poets from the Dominican Republic
As tropical as it is topical, this landmark anthology gives voice to three powerful women poets from the Dominican Republic. Together they present a wide array of linguistic and stylistic elements, and they address shared political and cultural issues that illuminate what it means to be a woman in the modern-day Dominican Republic. Translator Judith Kerman, who began the anthology as a Senior Fulbright Scholar, notes that “contemporary women poets from the Dominican Republic are the most underserved group when it comes to English-language translations.” This anthology remedies that omission with poetry that is smart, edgy, and groundbreaking.
Aida Cartagena Portalatin is one of the most significant 20th Century woman authors of the Dominican Republic. Poet, fiction writer, historian, art critic, university professor and mentor to younger writers, she published 8 poetry collections, two novels and a short-story collection, as well as important ethnographic papers on African and Native American elements in Dominican culture. She died in 1994. Now retired, Angela Hernández Núñez studied Chemical Engineering and taught Chemistry at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. During the 1980's she was a leader in the national feminist movement. She has published 5 poetry collections, 5 short story collections and 2 novels (Cole Prize winner, 2002), as well as essays on civil rights and women's issues. Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo studied Law and Political Science at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. Poet, essayist and literary critic, she has been a leading editor, publisher and promoter of literary works by Dominican women, and served as Director of Research at the Dominican National Library. She has published 7 poetry collections and numerous essays about Dominican literature. Judith Kerman's books include Galvanic Response (March Street Press, 2005); the bilingual collection, Plane Surfaces/Plano de Incidencia (Santo Domingo: CCLEH, 2002); and A Woman in Her Garden: Selected Poems of Dulce María Loynaz (White Pine Press, 2002). Kerman was a Fulbright Senior Scholar to the Dominican Republic in 2002. She publishes Mayapple Press and was founding editor of Earth's Daughters.
