On Cuban-American Author Jorge Reyes: A Short Biography

2006-10-31T19:23:00.000-08:00

Jorge Reyes (b. 1971) is a Cuban-born American author known for authoring books in several genres.

Early life
Born in Santiago de Cuba, Reyes left Cuba for the United States via Costa Rica in 1982.

Published Books
Reyes has written books in several genres of literature: biography, fiction, non-fiction, comedy, children's books, poetry.

His first book was a book in Spanish titled Guia Para Descubrir Tu Cuerpo, about the human anatomy for children ages 7-10. The book, published mostly in Latin America,demonstrated Reyes's ability to distill very archaic and complex information (the human body) into simple, but highly visual, information as written in Publishers Weekly.

Most of what is known about Reyes's childhood was penned down by Reyes himself in his most successful books yet, Rediscovering Cuba: A Personal Memoir, published in 2001.

In 2002, Reyes addressed the 2002 Miami International Book Fair giving a lecture on Cuban literature. In 2003, Reyes surprised many with the publication of his next book, a collection of poems titled, My Words Mean Something, which didn't seem to please the critics nor his fans.

The next few years Reyes slowed down a seemingly prolific work-product, halting the publication of some highly publicised books (mostly a major collection of short-stories titled, Caramelo's Dream, and concentrating on writing articles of particular interests-- such as art, politics and essays on a plethora of different current events.

A book of poetry penned in 2003 titled, Day's Night, was slated for publication in the Winter of 2006.

Regardless of Reyes's ability to write about unexpected themes and topics, Day's Night seems to be an unusual collection of poems that, if not for its subject matter, "a self-examined look at a love affair gone sour," then for the fact that the book was done with illustrations made by the reclusive artist Neith Nevelson. The Reyes/Nevelson duo was described by many critics as a strange artistic cooperation. As of 2010, no release date has been set for the book yet.

Reyes lives in South Florida.