Exclusive interview with Gabriela Marie Milton – #1 Amazon bestselling poet
Gabriela Marie Milton is a #1 Amazon bestselling poet and an internationally published author. She
is the author of the #1 bestselling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and
Poetic Prose, and the author of Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings. She edited and curated
the #1 Amazon bestselling anthology Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women.
Gabriela is Pushcart Prize nominee and the editor of MasicadoresUsa. Her poetry and short prose
have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Under the pen name Gabriela M she was
awarded 2019 Author of the Year at Spillwords Press (NYC). Her piece “If I say I love you” was
nominated for 2020 Spillwords Press Publication of the Year (Poetic).
NY Glam: Congratulations on your new book: “Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of
Strong Women.” Can you share more about it?
First, I am deeply grateful to New York Glamour Magazine for giving me the
opportunity to talk about “Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women.” I am
ecstatic that the book was for 9 days a #1 Amazon Bestseller [category: poetry
anthologies]. “Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women” is an astonishing
collection, edited and curated by me, and published by Experiments in Fiction – a
U.K. publisher owned by Ingrid Wilson. Ingrid is a wonderful poet with whom I
collaborated closely on this book. The book cover was done by Experiments in
Fiction, and the beautiful art featured on it belongs to Nick Reeves, a U.K. artist.
In a nutshell, the anthology features the work of award-winning authors, Pushcart
nominees, as well as that of emerging poets. Voices of women and men, come to
the fore in this unique collection to testify both to the challenges women face in
our patriarchal society, and to their power to overcome those challenges.
The book is a memorable collection of over 200 poems by more than 100 authors.
It’s a must-have for anyone because we all can benefit from the poetry of survival,
and of healing. We all can benefit from the experiences so strongly evoked in this
book. We all can come together to emerge triumphant from pain. We all need to
understand that equity among sexes will lead to the creation of social, economic,
and political structures far more suited to respond to the challenges of the future.
The poems in this book illustrate the physical and phycological abuses women
endure home and in the workplace; abuses that stem from being ethnically
different, from living in patriarchal milieus, from different gender orientations;
abuses that stem from just being a woman. They illustrate women’s struggles as
caregivers, as mothers, and as wives. They chronicle the pain of gender fluidity
and that of inequality. They talk about finding ways to fight and to heal, despite all
obstacles.
NY Glam: Are you proud with this book and why?
Goodness, I am as proud as a human can be. Women have fought for centuries for
equity. I hope that anyone who reads this collection can better understand the
struggles women face. Only after we fully understand these struggles, we – as a
society – can move further to build equitable structures in which everyone can be
treated with dignity and can be given the opportunity to flourish.
NY Glam: Can you tell us please, where your book can be found?
The book can be found on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/Wounds-Healed-
Poetry-Strong-Women/dp/1739757726], and one U.K. bookstore already carries it.
The publisher is trying to place the book in more bookstores in the U.K. I am
trying to place the book in U.S. bookstores. We need all the help we can get. We
need bookstore managers to understand that women’s struggles are important. We
need those who believe in equity for all to help us to spread the word about this
poetry collection. No one will regret reading the poems in this book. I am deeply
grateful to the New York Glamour Magazine for this interview. It’s not difficult to
guess why.
NY Glam: Tell us a bit about the other books you’ve published?
I published two poetry books. The first is entitled “Passion: Love Poems and Other
Writings” (Vita Brevis Press, 2020) and the second is called “Women: Splendor
and Sorrow; Love Poem and Poetic Prose” (Vita Brevis Press, 2021).
“Women: Splendor and Sorrow; Love Poem and Poetic Prose” (Vita Brevis Press,
2021) became a #1 Amazon Bestseller last August. It is a poetry collection about
love. However, the poetic prose included in it has clear feminist overtones. Jennifer
Padgett of Manhattan Book Review wrote: “Milton’s poetic artistry is bold and
beautiful, deep and confounding. It’s laced with gorgeous symbolism and
imagery…Due to her gift in this area, college literature professors may find her
work worthy of analysis and use. It is rich with an assortment of literary greats:
personification; simile; and metaphor, just to name a few. This collection is
noteworthy in its uniqueness and eloquence.”
About my first poetry collection “Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings”
Bobbie Peyton of San Francisco Book Review wrote that the book “transports us
on a journey of love as much as it delivers us a thematically diverse set of
emotions. This is a superb collection.” Jo Niederhoff of Manhattan Book Review
stated that: “Where Milton really shines is in her imagery. These are no Keats-style
odes, with stanza upon stanza to describe a single vase. Her descriptions come out
in briefer segments: one line here, another there. She doesn’t paint details so much
as she paints a feeling.”
There are plenty of great reviews of my books but perhaps what is closer to my
heart is how Brian Geiger [Vita Brevis Press] described me: “Gabriela Marie
Milton is the type of poet Robert Graves had in mind when he referred to being a
poet as a condition – rather than a profession.” This description honors me beyond
words.
On a different note, I am filled with joy because I received a letter from Brain
Geiger informing me that my poem “You night” – included in the third anthology
published by Vita Brevis – was nominated for the Pushcart prize. The nomination
will become official this October.
NY Glam: What has been your personal key to success?
Hard work. No expectations. No slogans such as: you deserve to be successful
and/or if people don’t like you, their loss.
Nobody promised us anything when we were born. We need to work hard. We
need to fight for our beliefs. I fight every day. I work hard every day. That is why
I am so proud of “Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women.” It is one way
of saying: I fight for women because I believe in their extraordinary capacity to
create a better world. I ask men to understand us and to stand with us in the fight
for equity and for making sure that our rights are respected.
NY Glam: What book are you currently working on?
I am excited to say a few words about my new project. I am working on a book
which I initially thought was going to be a children book. It’s magical realism. It
brings fantastic elements into realistic fiction. It may turn out not to be a children
book at all. We will see. I hope to finish it next year.
NY Glam: Top 3 writers that you liked?
Today? I am smiling. Lawrence Durrell will always come first no matter what.
Then I am thinking Jorge Luis Borges, and Antoine de Saint- Exupery. That’s how
I feel now. Tomorrow, I may give you a different list.
NY Glam: Do you express yourself creatively in any other ways?
Outside of my profession and my writings no. When I say no, I mean I do not play
an instrument, paint, or act.
NY Glam: What are you thinking about doing next…?
Publishing more books and fighting more for those who are silenced by the present
structures of power.
NY Glam: Where can everyone keep up with you to learn more? …social
media…website
I blog at shortprose.blog. I am on Twitter @shortprose1 and on IG at
gabriela_marie_milton. I generally prefer to be contacted via Twitter or my blog.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk to NY Glam.
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