Woman: Splendor and Sorrow Poetry Contest #anoncement #poem #poetry

My Dear Readers,

The poetry contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is now open. This contest honors the literary community that has supported me in my writing journey, and celebrates my becoming a #1 Amazon best-selling author.

To participate, you should write one poem inspired by a piece from my #1 Amazon best-selling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow and list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. A number of poems included in Woman: Splendor and Sorrow can be found on this blog.

The deadline for submission is September 20, 2021. Please submit your work before September 20 at shortprose12@gmail.com.

Guidelines for submission:

Submit your work before September 20 at shortprose12@gmail.com

Label your submission Poetry Contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow.

Do not submit more than one poem.

Do not forget to include: the poem from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow that inspired you, your name or pen name, and the email address where you can be contacted.

Please submit your poem in the body of the email. No attachments or links will be open.

Prizes:

First Place: $300

Second Place: $150

Third Place: $75

Funding for the prizes comes from my royalties.

If you do not have a PayPal account, please open one.

All winners will be featured on my blog. So will those who finish in the following places: 4, 5 and 6.

It is my hope that the winners will use part of their prizes to buy two or three books of their favorite fellow poets or novelists in order to help our literary community strive. If you do so, please let us know what you bought.

How the selection will be made?

The selection method is similar to that of a double-blind peer review: the reviewer doesn’t know the identity of the author, and vice-versa.

To achieve that I will do the following:

Create a master document with all submissions. Remove the name of the authors and replace them with numbers.
Create a second document with the name of the authors and their assigned numbers.
I will not participate in the process of determining the winners. Winners will be determined by two of your peers.
However, I will disclose a piece of information and deviate a bit from the fully double-blind process: the editor of Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine, Brian Geiger, will be one of the reviewers.

The winners will be announced in mid-October. I will update you periodically.

Good luck to everyone who wishes to participate and thank you again for your support.

To the future winners: please remember to spread love in our community and buy some books written by your WP favorite authors.

A Snippet from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow

In the evening, the sky stretches itself from blue to dark violet. The silk of the gloves hugs my fingers. I feed my iguana with cookies soaked in champagne. She hisses at me. I open a package of silk stockings. The door opens by itself, and you step in. Then it closes. I stare at you. You are in by your own volition. One kiss, and you borrow my tears. One touch, and I borrow your pain. A passage rite. I keep a coffin adorned with lilies in my bedroom. I sleep besides death like Sarah Bernhardt.

Did you hear that noise? A rosary fell from the Spanish chest.

The wind slips between the petals of a rose and opens it.

Who am I? If I knew, I would tell you.

Did you say you love me? The twenty-four hours are up. Nobody is facing in the direction of the sea anymore.

There is no me.

@Gabriela Marie Milton

Love Poem

Our sun ripped apart by the gallop of an Arabian horse.
Sand & blood.
Memories of our Sahara: the Sahara in which fate played games.
Spaces, times, light crawl upon each other like flapping fish in a net.
The enigma of to be.
The simplicity of me.
I #miss you. #vss365 #poem pic.twitter.com/XtPMANNis9
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 22, 2021

Poetry Contest

My Dear Readers,

To honor the community who have supported my writing journey and my work I plan to have a poetry contest in September. I will ask you to write one poem inspired by a piece from my #1 Amazon Best-Selling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow and to list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. A number of poems from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow can be found on this blog. There will be prizes. More info about the contest coming up in September.

MasticadoresUSA update

Thanks to Juan, MasticadoresUSA has now a new beautiful theme. There are several new posts on the site. For me MasticadoresUSA is a labor of love. It is a way of giving back to the WP community. Thank you to everyone who supports this site.

You can read the work of your fellow poets and follow the site here.

Love to everyone.

#1 Amazon Best-Selling Poetry Collection (August 9&10) Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton:

@Gabriela Marie Milton

My Dear Readers,
Several announcements:

Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton #1 in Amazon Hot New Releases

Yesterday, August 9, 2021, my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was #1 in Amazon Hot New Releases, Poetry Subjects and Themes. Yesterday, I became a bestselling author.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I have no words to tell you how humbled I am by your support, and by that of my followers from other social media outlets. Special thanks to my WP friends who are going through challenging times, and yet they still find ways to support and encourage me.

Equally, special thanks to my family, and to that wonderful person in my life who is a renowned and accomplished academic and author in his own right, and who he is now the “wind beneath my wings.”

My Dear Readers,

Do not listen to any detractors. There will be people who will envy you. There will be people who will denigrate your work, and you personally. There will be people who will want to drag you down. Do not listen to them. Keep going. Keep shining. Keep writing. If I can do it you can do it too. I will support each one of you as much as I can.

Poetry Contest

To honor the community who have supported my writing journey and my work I plan to have a poetry contest in September. I will ask you to write one poem inspired by a piece from my book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow and to list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. There will be prizes. More info about the contest coming up in September.

MasticadoresUSA update

You can read the work of your fellow poets and follow the site here.

Love to everyone.

Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton:

@Gabriela Marie Milton

Twitter Poem – Gabriela Marie Milton

Farewell to you Andalucía, to gypsy moons & to the music of your breasts. Frantic nights, wounds that never heal. White shirts, heated bodies, pulsing veins, rhythmic blood. A woman wears her wedding band around her neck. #Farewell to you my matador
Te amo para siempre
#vss365 pic.twitter.com/ZQooDZXons
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 28, 2021

Updates on Woman: Splendor and Sorrow

Amazon US – on August 4 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was in the top 17 new release bestsellers for poetry by women. Number 16 Louise Glück who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Running right behind her like on August 2. Humbled beyond words.

–

Amazon Ca – Today, August 6 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is in the top #19 new release bestsellers for poetry by women in Canada. Again humbled beyond words.

My dear followers, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind support.

@Gabriela Marie Milton

My publisher Brian Geiger informed me that yesterday August 2 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was in the top 20 new release bestsellers for poetry by women. Number 19 Louise Glück who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Running right behind her. Humbled beyond words.

Special thanks to everyone who bought my new book. At the same time special thanks to Brian who worked so hard on the publication of the book.

From Brian’s announcement:

“A poem in itself is a marvelous thing, but a collection of poetry is something else entirely — like the broader beauty of an arabesque, it’s felt more than seen. Perhaps this is what T.S. Elliot meant when he said genuine poetry communicates before it’s understood. The nebulous beauty of art, the feelings it stirs …”

Please continue reading HERE

The Amazon link to my book:

and crossing oceans and sending love to everyone.

@Gabriela Marie Milton

My book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is out!

My Dear Readers,

My book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is out!

I am deeply grateful to my followers who have supported me. My gratitude to my publisher, Brian Geiger – Vita Brevis Press – for accepting my manuscript and making my dream come true.

Book marketing is exceedingly difficult for me because I write under a penname. As I pointed out in an interview when I publish: “There are no gettings together, no signing of books in bookstores, no flowers, no friends to buy a bunch of your books and start writing reviews.”

Yet I have you, my WP and my social media friends. You make my writing journey beautiful. You make my soul blossom with joy.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

From the back cover:

“Woman is a triumphant collection of poetry. Milton explores with sincerity and great craft the many faces of identity and womanhood. This is the sort of poetry collection that will resonate with any reader.”

writes Brian Geiger, editor of Vita Brevis Press

You can order the e-book and the paperback in the link below.

I am also grateful to Brian for featuring me on Vita Brevis Poet Spotlight a place where, if you wish, you can learn more about my publications, my awards, and you can read my most recent interview.

From the Spotlight:

An Interview with Gabriela Marie Milton

Gabriela Marie Milton is a poet of condition rather than profession. I wrote as much in the foreword to her collection of poetry, Passions, referring to the great Robert Graves’ suggestion that the art of poetry isn’t so much learned as it is lived. This is the first thing readers of Milton’s work will realize; this is poetry with soul.

What’s the Purpose of Poetry?

Gabriela Marie Milton: “My first impulse is to answer the creation of meanings. That which is not directly expressed impacts us differently than a simple narration. A table of contents informs us. It speaks to our reason. A poem takes us to the plans of our inner and outer worlds that lie beyond reasoning, such as for instance the oneiric plan.

“Of course, great poetry was written during the Enlightenment period: a period characterized by the celebration of reason.

You can read more below.