Playground of Colors: A Photographic Plea to Protect the Earth by Andrei Marin now a #1 Bestseller in Japan
#1 Bestseller
Hi, my name is Lars from Literary Revelations. Gabriela is overwhelmed with work now so I am thrilled to share that Playground of Colors: A Photographic Plea to Protect the Earth by Andrei Marin is officially the #1 Bestseller in both Mixed Media and Graphic Design on Amazon Japan!
Make art from trash. Preserve. Protect our planet.
Grab your copy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HLQCJMP6/ (100% of author proceeds are donated to an ecological organization chosen by Andrei).
Playground of Colors: A Digital Plea to Protect the Earth by Andrei Marin now a #1 Top Release in the USA and a bestseller too – Publisher Literary Revelations
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Eco-Action Alert
I am beyond thrilled to announce that Andreiโs new book is officially OUT NOW on Amazon and its already a #1 Top Relaease and a Bestseller.
This stunning book transforms what was discarded into extraordinary artโa powerful visual journey celebrating the philosophy of Make Art from Trash, Preserve, and Protect. Every single page is a reminder of the raw beauty hidden within our world and our shared duty to safeguard it.
This isn’t just a release; it’s a mission. 100% of all proceeds from the book will be directly donated to an ecological organization handpicked by Andrei to support and restore our planet.
Choose your preferred format and join the movement:
Kindle / E-book: $4.99
Paperback: $25.12
Hardcover: $39.99
Whether you enjoy reading digitally or holding a beautiful physical copy, your support makes a real, tangible impact. Letโs protect our planet together!
Playground of Colors: A Digital Plea to Protect the Earth by Andrei Marin – Digital Photography – Coming soon at Literary Revelations
Art born from what the earth left behind.
I am thrilled to announce that Literary Revelations will soon publish Playground of Colors: A Photographic Plea to Protect the Earth by Romanian digital photographer Andrei Marin.
In this striking album, Andrei transforms discarded materials into breathtaking visual artโturning waste into wonder, and issuing a powerful plea to cherish and protect our planet. Elegant, intentional, and deeply moving, this volume is an invitation to view conservation through an entirely new lens.
It is a timeless masterpiece for art lovers, environmental advocates, and conscious collectors alike. Share the message of preservation this Christmas season!
Several Details:
Trim A4 perfect for coffee tables and gifts
eBook, paperback, and hardcover available
Number of Pages 183
Excerpt from Crepe in the Rain
Andrei Marin – Playground of Colors.
Playground of Colors: A digital plea to protect the earth By Andrei Marin
Gabriela Marie Milton 4X #1 Amazonbestseller Author an Founder Of Literary Revelations
Gabriela Marie Milton Featured on Times Square Billboards: A Celebration of Books, Art, and Global Poetry
With immense joy, deep gratitude, and a truly humbled heart, I am thrilled to share an extraordinary milestone in my literary journey and that of Literary Revelations. On September 23rd, from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM EST, my work will be featured on the iconic Times Square billboards in New York City (7th Ave & 49th St, above the Olive Garden, on rotation). To see my path as an author and publisher celebrated on such a global stageโstanding alongside the brilliant artwork of Hikari, the contributions of nearly 200 extraordinary poets from around the world, and the complete range of my own published booksโis a moment of pure wonder. I am endlessly grateful to everyone who has read, supported, and walked this artistic path with me.
Feature Details
Date: September 23rd
Rotation Window: 11:00 AM โ 3:00 PM EST
Location: 7th Avenue & 49th Street, Times Square, NYC (above the Olive Garden sign)
Featured Titles:
Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose
Jezebel’s Island
Haiku and Tanka: Lull, Harmony and Power in Japanese Art (co-authored with Hikari, featuring artwork by Hikari)
Haiku for Soulmates (Literary Revelations anthology featuring artwork by Hikari and poetry from nearly 200 poets worldwide)
(Please note: the design team is currently updating the graphic to ensure Jezebel’s Island is included in the display before the feature goes live.)
Design Highlights:P.O.W.E.R. Honors: Our Lifetime Achievement Honoree headline, author portrait, and featured book covers set against atmospheric floral artwork
Gabriela Marie Milton 4X #1 Amazonbestseller Author an Founder Of Literary Revelations
Join my 20.8 K followers on X (@shortprose1) and my 37.2 K followers on IG (@gabriela_marie_milton)
My books (Only English)
All listed books will feature on Times Square Billboards in September 2026 including Jezebel’s Island.
Unmasked Haiku by Gabriela Marie Milton: Inheriting the Fearless Humanity of Kobayashi Issa
Traditional Japanese poetry and classical haiku long championed a strict, objective distanceโusing nature as a silent, detached mirror for human experience. However, the Japanese master Kobayashi Issa shattered this convention by injecting his own ego, domestic poverty, self-deprecation, and bleeding parental grief directly into his verse. Centuries later, I find that this radical commitment to unvarnished human truth serves as the very heart and foundation of my concept of the unmasked haiku.
Parallels in Confessional Immediacy
When comparing Issa’s most devastating and personal fragments with my contemporary unmasked haiku, a striking structural and philosophical kinship emerges. Both traditions strip away polite conventions, decorative seasonal tropes (kigo), and superficial sweetness to expose raw, unmediated emotional realities.
To understand the lineage of this aesthetic, one need only look to Issa’s ultimate cry of parental loss following the death of his infant daughter:
้ฒใฎไธใฏ้ฒใฎไธใชใใใใใชใใ
(Tsuyu no yo wa / tsuyu no yo nagara / sari nagara)
This world of dew
is a world of dew,
and yet… and yet…
โ Kobayashi Issa
The Buddhist doctrine told Issa that human life is fleetingโa temporary drop of morning dew. Philosophically, he understood it; humanly, his heart broke anyway. That final phraseโand yetโฆโis where classical detachment shatters. It is the exact threshold where the unmasked haiku lives: in the refusal to let intellectual distance or decorative formulas mute the raw voice of human pain.
Consider how this line of continuity flows directly into my contemporary unmasked haiku:
middle seatโ
swallowing tears
at thirty thousand feet
a childโ
playing hide and seek
alone
Key Convergence Points
Radical Exposure of Vulnerability: Issa laid bare his grief and flaws without protective literary barriers. In Issaโs fragment, he acknowledges the philosophical impermanence of existence (world of dew), yet openly rejects stoic acceptance (and yet…). Similarly, my contemporary unmasked haiku thrusts the reader immediately into claustrophobic, deeply exposed human momentsโstripping away social armor and emotional pretense.
The Echo of Childhood and Isolation: Themes of abandonment, fragile youth, and solitary existence recur across both works. Issa spent a lifetime examining children left to navigate a harsh world alone, echoing the quiet gravity found in solitary modern spaces.
The Weight of Ma and Silence: Both traditions rely heavily on the aesthetic of maโthe pregnant, meaningful silence between lines. Issaโs and yet… relies on the pause to convey what formal language cannot express, just as my contemporary unmasked haiku uses strict minimal phrasing to let interior weight land without decorative explanation.
Conclusion
By rejecting the safe distance of traditional, purely objective nature poetry, the unmasked haiku successfully preserves the serious, meditative essence of the classical tradition while boldly stepping into modern emotional realities. In doing so, it serves as a direct spiritual descendant of Issaโs fearless, bleeding humanity.
A humble homage to the master – Unmasked haiku by Gabriela Marie Milton
my forehead โ on the ground ashes
Reminders:
My books will be featured on September 23rd on Times Square Billboards on a rotation from 11am-3pm. The location is on 7th Ave and 49th St, on top of the Olive Garden restaurant. I am thrilled for this once in a lifetime event!
Literary Revelations will publish Raw: Unmasked Haiku by Gabriela Marie Milton in November (2026). Please stay tuned for more news.
Gabriela Marie Milton 4X #1 Amazonbestseller Author an Founder Of Literary Revelations
Join my 20.8 K followers on X (@shortprose1) and my 37.2 K followers on IG (@gabriela_marie_milton)
My books (Only English)
All listed books will feature on Times Square Billboards in September 2026 including Jezebel’s Island.
Wishing my followers and subscribers a wonderful new week.
Because my work pivots so directly into the unfiltered realities of human grief, memory, and history, I categorize it as โUNMASKED HAIKU.โ
Some might be tempted to label these poems as senryลซ. I respectfully decline that label. Historically, senryลซ carries the baggage of being lighthearted, satirical, or humorous. To apply such a categorization to heavy, emotional, and historical verse fundamentally misses the gravity of the human heart.
This is precisely why I use the term โunmasked haiku.โ
By retaining the word haiku, I preserve the serious, meditative, and high-art nature of the classical form. I honor the reverence, structural discipline, and sacred silenceโthe maโthat defines the lineage of the great masters.
By appending unmasked, I signal the removal of the traditional imperative to filter our deepest wounds through safe, comfortable nature metaphors. We do not need falling autumn leaves, dying roses, or morning frost to serve as cushions for raw human pain. Unmasked haiku strips away the polite distance, inviting the reader to stand directly in the clear, unvarnished light of human experience.
The Poetry in Practice: Why These Work Is “Unmasked”
To understand what it means to unmask the form, consider these two pieces:
slave marketโ chains clinking under the hot sun
Why it is Unmasked:
Traditional haiku often looks to the elementsโthe sun, the sky, the airโto ground a scene in tranquility or seasonal transition. Here, there is no scenic buffer. The scene opens directly on a site of historical trauma: slave marketโ. The sun is not a warm, poetic element of nature; it is a weight, intensifying the heat and exposure of human bondage. The verse rejects satire or lightness (senryลซ), yet it refuses to hide behind abstract metaphors. It uses the minimalist precision of haiku to record structural violence and historical reality with stark, photographic stillness.
honeydewโ two coins on closed eyes
This piece plays with sensory contrast to confront mortal ritual and loss without euphemism. It begins with honeydewโ a word suggesting sweetness, lingering life, and sensory richness. But rather than resolving into a comfortable reflection on life’s fleeting sweetness, it immediately drops into the stark finality of death: two coins / on closed eyes. The transition strips away any romanticized mask of passing away. It does not look to a falling leaf to symbolize death; it looks directly at the ancient, visceral custom of preparing the body for the quiet beyond.
Gabriela Marie Milton 4X #1 Amazonbestseller Author an Founder Of Literary Revelations
Join my 20.8 K followers on X (@shortprose1) and my 37.2 K followers on IG (@gabriela_marie_milton)
My books (Only English)
All listed books will feature on Times Square Billboards in September 2026 including Jezebel’s Island.
another silhouette reflected in your eye how slow I bleed
a shot deer my soul splashed in red
From my upcoming collection Raw: Unmasked Haiku by Gabriela Marie Milton
On the Unmasked Haiku
Traditional haiku often asks us to step backโto observe the falling leaf or the leaning shadow, using nature as a quiet, objective mirror for human emotion. There is an exquisite craft in that restraint, perfected by classical masters like Matsuo Bashล and Yosa Buson, whose work sought spiritual stillness and painterly detachment.
Yet, the history of the form also carries a deeper, more intimate current.
Even among the traditional Japanese masters, the mask occasionally slipped. Kobayashi Issa famously broke from detached reverence, filling his verses with raw, autobiographical grief, wry humor, and the unpolished ache of personal loss. Decades later, Masaoka Shiki revolutionized the art form by championing shaseiโ”sketching from life”โdemanding that poets abandon rigid, artificial conventions to capture unvarnished reality.
An unmasked haiku takes this lineage to its absolute conclusion. It strips away the remaining disguises of distance, objectivism, and polished metaphor. Instead of looking outward at the landscape to reflect what lies within, it brings the raw, subjective human experience directly into the light. It centers an unvarnished “I,” laying bare vulnerable personal truths, immediate emotional states, and the unfiltered weight of daily life.
By preserving the essence of classical haikuโa single, breath-length snapshot captured in three quiet linesโit shifts its focus. The lens turns inward, moving from the natural world outside to the intricate, shadowed labyrinth of the human soul.
Gabriela Marie Milton 4X #1 Amazonbestseller Author an Founder Of Literary Revelations
Join my 20.8 K followers on X (@shortprose1) and my 37.2 K followers on IG (@gabriela_marie_milton)
My books (Only English)
All listed books will feature on Times Square Billboards in September 2026 including Jezebel’s Island.
The 9th Basho-an International English Haiku Competition
Via our Artist in Residence, Hikari, Literary Revelations has been invited to share a wonderful opportunity from Mrs. Kakutani Masako, Director of the International Division at The Association of Haiku Poets.
Following the global reception of our poetry anthologiesโincluding Haiku for Soulmates, which was recently shared with educators and poets at the English Haiku Program in Matsuyamaโthe Basho Memorial Museum has reached out to our press.
As the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Literary Revelations together with our Artist in Residence Hikari, we warmly invite youโour anthology contributors, readers, and global community of haiku poets โto submit your original work to this prestigious competition.
Submission Guidelines:
Language: English
Entry Fee: Free
Submission Limit: Up to 10 English haiku per participant
Eligibility: Open to poets worldwide
Organizer: Basho Memorial Museum / Koto City Culture Community Foundation
To learn more and submit your entries, please visit the official page:
I want to thank my three wonderful reviewers straight from my heart for taking the time to share their thoughts on Jezebel’s Island. Your insights mean the world to me and help other readers discover the secrets hidden within the book.
I am only sharing these three beautiful reviews for now, but I have received so much wonderful feedback. I will be sharing more reviews with all of you very soon, so please stay tuned!
Exciting News: Jezebelโs Island Is Now Available on Kobo!
Great news for ebook lovers! My book, Jezebelโs Island, is no longer exclusive to Amazon. You can now officially download it on Kobo.
Why expand to Kobo? I want to make sure every reader can access my stories on their favorite device.
Here is why this matters:
Global Access: Kobo is incredibly popular worldwide, especially for readers in Japan, (where it is powered by Rakuten ), Canada, Europe, and Australia. Device Freedom: You can read it directly on Kobo e-readers or via the free Kobo Reading App on any tablet or smartphone. Library Integration: Kobo works seamlessly with OverDrive, making it easier for library lovers to find digital books.
If you have been waiting to grab your copy outside of the Amazon ecosystem, now is your chance!
Reading Books Is Cooler Than Scrolling: Explore the Literary Revelations New Collection
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In a world that constantly demands our attentionโpulling us toward glowing screens, endless notifications, and the swift current of the digital ageโchoosing to pause, open a book, and immerse ourselves in a story is a quiet, profound act of grace.
At Literary Revelations, our heart has always been anchored in preservation, artistic integrity, and the deep emotional resonance of real literature. We believe that what we feed our minds shapes who we are.
That is why we created something special for our community: our new ‘Reading books is cooler than scrolling’ collection. Whether it is a mug for your quiet morning reading ritual or apparel that carries our shared philosophy out into the world, every piece is designed with the bibliophile in mind.
More than anything, this collection is a way to sustain our independent press. Every contribution directly supports Literary Revelations, ensuring we can continue championing authentic voices, poetry, and stories that outlast fleeting digital trends.
Kindle / E-book: $4.99
Order your copy here: 
