Jorge Olivera Castillo (born 1961) is a well-known dissident Cuban author of numerous novels, short story collections, poetry anthologies, and political commentaries.
Banned in his home country, his work is widely disseminated abroad, also appearing on blogs such as the Miami-based Cubanet. His books include four volumes of poetry, Confesiones antes del Crepúsculo (2005), En Cuerpo y Alma (2008), Cenizas Alumbradas (2010), and Sobrevivir en la boca del lobo (2011), and two volumes of short stories, Huésped del Infierno (2007) and Antes que Amanezca y otros relatos (2010). Between 1983 and 1993, he worked in Havana as a television program editor. From that year onward he joined the dissident movement, spending until 1995 as press secretary to the independent Federation of Democratic Cuban Workers. For the past fifteen years he has mainly survived as a freelance journalist, becoming director of the Habana Press agency from 1999-2003. Imprisoned from March 2003 to December 2004 "for claiming free expression" (his words), he was only released from his eighteen-year sentence on health grounds. He now lives and writes at home, with his wife, Nancy.
