The Cuban Cultural Center of New York awards poet José Kozer the 2021 La Avellaneda Medal, its highest recognition in literature. Regarded by many as the pre-eminent Cuban poet of his generation, he is certainly the most prolific, having authored over 60 books of poetry.
Born in Havana in 1940, to a Polish father and a Czechoslovakan mother, Kozer left Cuba in 1961 and settled in New York City, attending New York University and Queens College, where he later taught as Full Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literatures for over 30 years.
His poetry centers on his existential condition as an exile, from which he strives towards a universal spiritual unity for the individual and mankind as a whole. It includes references to his ancestors and Jewish tradition as well as Christian and Oriental religious imagery. Kozer’s poetry has been translated into English, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Hebrew, and Greek and has been widely anthologized. Among his books are La rueca de los semblantes (1980); Bajo este cien (1983); La garza sin sombras (1985); Carece de causa (1988); De donde oscilan los seres en sus proporciones (1990); et mutabile (1995); Dípticos (1998); Farándula (1999); Mezcla para dos tiempos (prose, 1999); No buscan reflejarse (2001); Ánima (2002).
