Juventina Soler Palomino

Juventina Soler Palomino was born in Manzanillo, Cuba, in 1970. She is a poet, essayist, playwright, teacher, researcher and editor. She holds a master’s degree in history and culture and is a women’s rights activist. Her writing, research into Cuban culture and community work share a focus on gender.

She has received the Manuel Navarro Luna National Poetry Prize and the José Joaquín Palma Award for Literary Merit, sponsored by the Guatemalan Embassy in Cuba. Her publications include the poetry collections Signs of Resurrection, Exile in My City and Every Day I Invent a Country, and the essay collections Looking Sideways: Cuban Poetry of the 1990s and The Needle in the Haystack: Cuban Cultural Contexts.

She also coordinates the Contrapalabras event and leads Musas Inquietantes, a community project centred on gender. Through these initiatives, she brings her writing and research into settings where people can reflect and take part in community life.

In For Women Before They Give In to Temptation, published by Tu Letra Online, she turns to theatre to explore women’s experiences. The book brings together voices from different backgrounds and gives dramatic form to their stories, emotions and gestures, bringing the written word, performance and audiences together.