POETRY BY DETAINEES OF GUANTANAMO BAY FINDS ITS WAY TO AMERICA

The University of Iowa Press has responded to international interest in Poems from Guantanamo, an anthology of poetry written by detainees imprisoned at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, by moving its publication date from Aug. 15 to July 27.

Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak, edited by Marc Falkoff, is available directly from the UI Press by phone at 800-621-2736 or online at http://www.uiowapress.org and is also available June 15 from bookstores and online retailers. In the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, or Africa, contact Eurospan by phone, +44 (0) 1767 604972, by fax +44 (0) 1767 601640, or online at http://www.eurospanonline.com/eurospan/index.asp .

Falkoff is an assistant professor at the Northern Illinois University College of Law and attorney for 17 Guantanamo prisoners. Flagg Miller, a linguistic and cultural anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, wrote the book’s preface, and an afterword was contributed by Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean-American poet, novelist, playwright and human rights activist who holds the Walter Hines Page Chair of Literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky wrote, “Poetry, art of the human voice, helps turn us toward what we should or must not ignore. Speaking as they can across barriers actual and figurative, translated into our American tongue, these voices in confinement implicitly call us to our principles and to our humanity. They deserve, above all, not admiration or belief or sympathy -- but attention. Attention to them is urgent for us.”
http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/july/071907guantanamopoetry.html