90 Miles: Selected and New Poems

In creating this collection Suárez creatively combines poems from six previous collections with unpublished ones to give compelling expression of what it means to live in exile.

Library Journal

It is 90 miles from Cuba to Key West, a distance many have died trying to cross. Suarez, a poet, novelist, and memoirist, has worked hard to bridge the gap. After six collections in as many years, Suarez should reach a wider audience with this volume of new and selected work. The core poems are personal narratives of a family and its history-a cast of unforgettable, displaced characters finding their way in Cuba, Spain, and, finally, the United States. Suarez cuts even the most painful moments with wild humor and inventive twists of language. His attention to detail is a delight, and his energetic voice, with the tint of his native tongue, is powerful and compelling. "The best way to eat a mango,/ my father-in-law once told me,/ is in the shower, how juices// run down your chin/ and neck, when the seed slips/ out of your hands like soap// and you bite down on the soft/ meat." In these poems we see the "other America," often full of surprises. Suarez is one of today's more important Latino voices, and this volume should be included in any serious contemporary poetry collection.-Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Virgil Suárez was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1962. Since 1974 he has lived in the United States. In addition to his six previous collections of poetry, he is the author of four novels, The Cutter, Latin Jazz, Havana Thursdays, and Going Under, and of the collections of stories Welcome to the Oasis and Other Stories. Two memoirs, Spared Angola: Memories from a Cuban-American Childhood and Infinite Refuge, chronicle his life of exile. He has edited many successful anthologies, including Iguana Dreams: New Latino Fiction; Little Havana Blues: A Cuban-American Literature Anthology; American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement; Like Thunder: Poets Respond to Violence in America; and Vespers: Contemporary American Poems of Religion and Spirituality. He lives in Florida.