[01/13/25] Morales, Marcelo / Dykstra, Kristin (tr.): The Star-Spangled Brand

Veliz Books, paperback

Translated by Kristin Dykstra

Publication Date: January 13, 2025

Publisher Marketing: The Star-Spangled Brand by Marcelo Morales, translated by Kristin Dykstra, is a collection of prose poetry which tracks a city that changes–unless it does not. He began the book's composition during the 2010s with a long poem, "The Swan II," reflecting on everyday life and history in Havana. At the time, the world viewed Cuba as undergoing profound transformation. The end of this decade involved more large-scale shifts and conflicts, many driven by north/south relations. How would new events sculpt spaces around the love, fear, and needs of one single citizen?

PRAISE FOR THE STAR-SPANGLED BRAND Marcelo Morales is a Chris Marker of Cuba. His groundbreaking prose poetry unfolds like film, from his double nation-state consciousness—Cuba and the US. It is saturated with fast-paced montage of snap-shot historical memory and the reality of economic-embargoed utopia. His "two nation-states" vision across the ocean plays the role of a foreigner in Florida, documenting and translating the paradise of gun-violence and xenophobia. The Star-Spangled Brand in Kristin Dykstra's brilliant translation is unforgettable and vital. It will make you feel what Morales feels: "the power of two nation-states on the back of my neck." —Don Mee Choi, author of Mirror Nation