Award-winning Cuban writers Zulema Gutiérrez and Javier L. Mora are ICORN residents in Gdańsk
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At the beginning of July 2025, the Polish city of Gdańsk welcomed award-winning Cuban writers Zulema Gutiérrez and Javier L. Mora as ICORN residents. Since arriving in Poland, the pair have participated in several events at the House of Literature in Gdańsk, the European Solidarity Centre, and the Conrad Literature Festival in Kraków. In addition, the work of both Mora and Gutiérrez has already been published in Poland, as part of the ‘Literatura na uchodźstwie’ anthology by the Cultural Institute Villa Decius.
Javier L. Mora is an award-winning poet, literary critic, and translator who began his career more than a decade ago. Zulema Gutiérrez is an award-winning poet, writer, and independent journalist.
Mora has published several poetry collections, including Examen de los institutos civiles (2012), Manejos del ojo (2019),Ablandar una lengua (2020) and Exhibiciones (2021), as well as a volume of essays titled Matar al gato ruso y otros ensayos (2022). In addition, Mora complied, co-authored, and wrote the prologue for the anthology Long Playing Poetry: Cuba: Generación Años Cero (2017), together with writer Ángel Pérez.
Mora has won several awards for his poetry, including the David Award (2012), the La Gaceta de Cuba Prize (2018), and the Hypermedia Editorial Prize (2019) for his poetry. For his essays, Mora has received the Beca de Creación Dador (2014) and the Pinos Nuevos prize (2018).
As a writer, Zulema Gutiérrez has published several books including the poetry collections Islas que intentan salvarse (2011), Sentada junto a los crisantemos (2014), Danza alrededor del fuego (2018), Metralla (2019), and Técnicas de control (2020). She has also published the children's novel El sentimiento más importante (2017).
As a journalist, Gutiérrez has worked with the feminist magazine ‘Alas Tensas’ and its Gender Observatory which research and campaign against gender-based violence in Cuba. She has interviewed several Cuban dissident artists who campaign for free expression in Cuba and has written profiles for artists imprisoned for taking part in peaceful pro-democracy protests.
She has won several prizes for her work, including the La Llave Pública Narrative Prize (2016), the Portus Patris Poetry Prize (2018),the Holguín City Prize (2018), the Adelaida del Mármol Prize (2018), and theHypermedia Editorial Poetry Prize (2020).
Since 2021, both Gutiérrez and Mora have been part of the Archipiélago civic platform, a Cuban social protest movement working for democracy, peaceful political change, and the release of Cuba’s political prisoners.
As a result, both have faced harassment and organised state persecution, with Mora being arbitrarily detained and Gutiérrez being dismissed from her job the Asociación Hermanos Saíz and barred from participating in Cuba’s literary and cultural sector.
Gdańsk ICORN City of Refuge
Gdańsk joined ICORN in 2017 at an official ceremony during the Solidarity of Arts Festival. The ICORN Membership Agreement was signed in the Winter Garden of the European Solidarity Centre, in the presence of the late Mayor Paweł Adamowicz.
In addition to Javier L. Mora and Zulema Gutiérrez, Gdańsk has hosted three other ICORN residents from Palestine, Tajikistan, and Belarus.
In 2021, in collaboration with the European Committee of the Regions and ICORN, Gdańsk established the Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Award, which honours the commitment of civic and city leaders, as well as local and regional organisations, to the promotion of freedom of expression, the equal protection of different views, and participatory politics.
In 2022, Gdańsk hosted the ICORN General Assembly.
