Publication Suspended or Cancelled in the United
States
- The University of Alabama Press (UA Press) suspended the publication
of Dialogues in Cuban Archaeology, a discussion among leading
Cuban and American archaeologists. American and Cuban archaeologists
have had few opportunities to exchange information in recent decades,
and the draft manuscript had been applauded by peer reviewers as a breakthrough
for the field.
- UA Press also suspended publication of A Colossus on the Sand:
The Slave Revolt of 1825 in Guamacaro and the Atlantic World, by
a Cuban scholar. Based on otherwise inaccessible material in the Cuban
National Archives, the book would have provided an unprecedented opportunity
for Americans to learn about a previously unstudied slave rebellion
led by three African men in Cuba, which had a lasting influence on slavery
and the resistance movement throughout the region.
- Mathematical Geology, the journal of the International Association
for Mathematical Geology, cancelled the publication of a paper by geologists
at Shiraz University in Iran. The paper describes a novel methodology
to facilitate the geophysical interpretation of mapping data that aims
to advance earthquake prediction.
- The Smithsonian Institution Press suspended its plans to publish an
English/Spanish edition of The City of Columns, by the acclaimed
Cuban novelist and cultural writer Alejo Carpentier, which considers
the unique historic architecture of Havana. The bilingual version would
have combined the text with photographs by prominent American and Cuban
photographers, an essay by a well-known Cuban cultural critic, and a
preface by a prominent American architect.
- The plans of Cornell University Press (CU Press) to reprint its Field
Guide to the Birds of Cuba, a successful international collaboration
that combined text authored by Cuban ornithologists with illustrations
by an American artist and innovative designs devised by CU Press, are
endangered by OFAC’s regulations. The Field Guide is an
important resource for understanding bird species found in Cuba and
the fragile ecosystems they inhabit, as well as the migration patterns
of birds along the eastern coast of the Americas.
- Northwestern University Press has put on hold a project supported
by PEN involving the translation and promotion of a selection of twelve
short stories written in Cuba during the past decade by young writers,
some of whose works have not circulated freely because of political
constraints. The book would include an introduction by the editors (two
American comparative literature scholars) to help American readers more
fully appreciate the translated works.
- The OFAC Regulations also threaten The PEN Anthology of Contemporary
Iranian Literature, which PEN has sponsored and Arcade has plans
to publish. The anthology will contain writings by leading Iranian writers,
poets, and critics created since the Iranian Revolution, many of which
reflect the turmoil and repression of recent years. The PEN Anthology
is a collaborative effort between Americans and Iranians; for example,
the American scholar and editor Nahid Mozaffari is adding biographical
and explanatory notes and an introductory essay for the book, providing
historical and literary context to help American readers more fully
appreciate the translated works.
- Temple University Press decided to forgo an exciting project, an Encyclopedia
of Cuban Music, because of the OFAC Information Regulations. The
Encyclopedia would have been the definitive work in its field and the
product of the Cuban author's thirty-year study of the subject.
Works Unknown
Valuable books, articles, and scientific research may never reach Americans
while the chilling effects of OFAC's claims of authority over First Amendment
materials remain. These works could include Cuban scientists' medical
research, especially in infectious diseases; memoirs by political dissidents
in Iran, Cuba, and Sudan; and primary accounts of environmental disasters,
religious and civil strife, and famine by residents of the Sudan.
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