"Every compendium attempts to explain something. Because it includes voices 'from inside and out,' the book readers hold in their hands demonstrates the continuities and coincidences, departures and ruptures, of a process that is human as well as literary. It is history in other codes."— Silvio Rodríguez, Cuban singer/songwriter

"The glory and triumph of Margaret Randall’s gathering comes directly from a half century spent in and out of Cuba, the work of a participant observer and a poet attuned to the work of others in a country long the seat of one of the world’s great centers of poetry with strong attachments to the world at large. Her voice as a translator is impeccable, close up and audible and open to all sides of what has been a long and complicated—and often contradictory—history. That so much is present here—old and new, simple and richly complex, at home and in exile—makes this an assemblage that goes to the limits of what such a gathering can possibly be. As a work for the understanding of what has happened so near to us and so far away, Only the Road is a book not only for the here and now but also for the ages."— Jerome Rothenberg

"Only the Road is a major cultural intervention at a crucial time when both the Spanish and English speaking literary world and beyond may experience—be moved by, delight in, weep with—the power and historical importance of a forceful body of work that defines an immense cultural legacy. This is a magnificent time to open the floodgates of a further to be known poetry; a magnificent tome to enhance our détente with Cuba. Cuba: its hopes and fears, its dreams, its promise, its extraordinary intellectual rigor, its poetic literacy and resistance, its survival, a poetry captured here of over eight decades, entangled with a unique and complicated history, that anyone paying attention today cannot ignore. Margaret Randall, prodigious poet, writer, thinker, translator, editor, teacher, activist has accomplished a task of a lifetime. She has given full voice to this small island’s powerfully diverse universe. The poets here are individually—racially, politically, sexually—complex, with life stories that are captured here as well, human and heroic. Randall exhibits great care and integrity to the task. Brilliant work. 'see that you don’t abandon them./islands are imaginary worlds./cut from the sea. they journey in the loneliness of rootless lands.' (Reina Maria Rodriquez)"— Anne Waldman, Poet, Artistic Director of the Kerouac School Summer Writing Program