New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/14/2013 --2Leaf Press is pleased to announce its first Kindle publication, "Hey Yo! Yo Soy! 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry, A Bilingual Edition" by Nuyorican poet Jesús Papoleto Meléndez. Besides being the first major contemporary poet to publish his works bilingually in the U.S., he is also the first to publish his collected works as an eBook on Amazon Kindle.

The 386-page bilingual print edition published in October 2012, is currently available for sale on Amazon.com and other online outlets. The collection, comprised of three previously published books, "Casting Long Shadows" (1970), "Have You Seen Liberation" (1971), and "Street Poetry & Other Poems" (1972), consist of 60 poems about growing up Puerto Rican in New York City’s El Barrio.

Born and raised in New York City from parents who migrated from Puerto Rico, Meléndez notes, “Back then, it was a different experience being a Puerto Rican in New York City. The sense of not belonging to Puerto Rico and not belonging in the United States is something everyone was going through. Writing gave me a chance to prove that I was a human being and in doing so, I became part of a movement that connected me to my heritage.” Meléndez has long been considered one of the founders of the Nuyorican Movement.

The Spanish translations, which appear alongside the English, have been superbly rendered by Adam Wier, Carolina Fung Feng, and Marjorie González. The collection includes a forward by Samuel Diaz and Carmen M. Pietri-Diaz, a commentary about the translation process by Wier, an introduction by Sandy Maria Esteves, and an afterword by Jaime “Shaggy” Flores, as well as historical photos of Meléndez and an exclusive interview, edited by Gabrielle David and Kevin E. Tobar Pesántez. All of this material has been retained and is available on the Kindle edition as well.

Very few literary publishers have committed to publishing poetry in an eBook format,” says Gabrielle David, publisher of 2Leaf Press. “The first problem is the budget, being able to afford qualified people to convert the books properly into a stable digital format that’s readable across numerous devices. The biggest problem is figuring out the best way to format the work without losing the spacing or formatting of the poems. We’ve been looking at this closely for the past two years and feel confident that by using HTML formatting techniques with clean code, and paying special attention to line breaks and spacing, for the most part, we can maintain the aesthetics of the author’s poetry.”

The press has decided to break out its eBook titles with Amazon’s Kindle before expanding its market to Nook and Kobo. “For the benefit of anyone reading this,” explains David, “you don't have to own a Kindle to read our books. You can download one of the free Kindle Apps on Amazon.com for your Android phone or tablet, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows 8 PC or tablet, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone.” 2Leaf Press plans to upload titles directly to Barnes & Noble and KoboBooks in the immediate future.

Whether it’s in print or eBook format, 2Leaf Press encourages readers to pick up a copy of "Hey Yo! Yo Soy! 40 Years of Nuyorican Street Poetry, A Bilingual Edition." It is a collection to be devoured as a single sustained narrative, from the first page to the last; a worthy addition in anyone’s library.

AMAZON PRINT EDITION || AMAZON KINDLE

2Leaf Press || NUYORICAN WORLD SERIES || ISBN: 978-0988476301 || LCCN: 2012951817

About 2Leaf Press
2Leaf Press is an imprint of the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars, Inc. (IAAS), a New York-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes multicultural literature and literacy. www.2leafpress.org