Exploring Poetry: Keiselim Montás and Norberto James

by Aida L. Heredia

In NoCountrymagazine, July 10, 2023

"Norberto James emerged as a young writer during the period of the 1965 Dominican civil war (known as Guerra de Abril). He published his first book[2] of poems, Sobre la marcha, in 1969. According to Miguel D. Mena, the book generated sustained national attention for its concise approach to socio-political issues and its distinctive use of rhythm in poetry. James’s craft in Sobre la marcha also stood out for its depiction of the cocolos, the community of African-descended workers from the English-speaking Antilles who since the beginning of the twentieth century had been migrating to the Dominican Republic to labor in the sugar industry. Political repression during the twelve-year regime of Joaquín Balaguer led Norberto James to emigrate to Cuba in 1972; he returned to the Dominican Republic in 1979. A few years later, in 1983, he left for the United States, where he established permanent residency.[3] Keiselim Montás situates himself and his writing within the linguistic, cultural and geographical dialectics of the Caribbean diaspora to the United States. People have described Montás’s essays and poetry as a contribution to migration studies and to the development of Dominican literary production in Spanish in the United States.[4] Indeed migration figures prominently in Allá (diario del transtierro) (2012), a book in which Montás’s spirited reflections can be appreciated in the oral quality of his poems and his use of scenic modes of narration. The book’s parenthetical title points to its narrative style."

Full Article: Exploring Poetry: Keiselim Montás and Norberto James