I am thrilled to let everyone know that Swarn Gill’s new book Love, Stars, and Paradigms released a few hours ago just became #1 Amazon bestseller in the UK, the US, and Canada.
Congratulations to Swarn! My publishing house –Literary Revelations – and I are thrilled. Thank you to those who support and believe in us.
Have a great weekend everyone.
The book is available in all Amazon markets.
Gabriela Marie Milton 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Books:
I am thrilled to let you know that Swarn Gill‘s poetry collection Love, Stars, and Paradigms is now live on Amazon. A publication of Literary Revelations, the book speaks about love, social issue, nature and human relations.
Here is the Amazon description I wrote:
Swarn Gill’s poetry collection, Love, Stars, and Paradigms is a must-read for anyone looking for original and stunning poems about love, social, and political issues. Through his work, Gill explores the connection between the natural realm and the human condition with an eye for detail that is both captivating and thought-provoking. Through powerful imagery and vivid language, he paints his own unique perspective on the world around us. Whether it’s about heartache or joy, Gill’s words will touch your soul. Love, Stars, and Paradigms is an unforgettable journey through the beauty of love and the complexities of relationships.
Swarn jokingly telling us why we have to buy his book.
I am thrilled to reveal the full cover design of Love, Stars, and Paradigms by Swarn Gill. This stunning poetry collection will be published by Literary Revelations early April.
The art on the cover belongs to Magdalena Gill.
Follow this space, Literary Revelations and my social media, Twitter @sortprose1 and IG @gabriela_marie_milton, for more updates on the release date.
Please read the preface I wrote and support us.
Thank you!
Foreword
Writing a poetry collection is one thing, but to write one in which every poem shines like the brightest star in the sky is to take the reader to an entirely different level, inside a universe in which words permeate hearts and transform souls. This is where the poems of Swarn Gill take you.
While within the pages of this book each poem stands on its own, one can notice thematic issues resembling circumpolar constellations. Swarn Gill’s poetry concerns itself with perennial matters such as: love, pain, identity, social justice, building a better self, rituals of daily life to name just a few. The depth and beauty in his poems are remarkable. In Lovestruck he writes “I chose to face wrathful clouds/and I saw/such beauty in the maelstrom/and though you struck me hard/ you hardened me like glass/ and in those semi-opaque reflections/ we hold, we sip, we float.”
In Diurnal Dreams winds of liberation from the conventions of a society plagued by commercialism blow, “free me from grey/break me out/of concrete prisons/prostrate me/among the daisies/let emerald butterflies/send me to slumber.”
Love and nature are married in a remarkable way in Under Nature’s Power. It’s not a marriage of convenience. It’s osmosis. Nature leads. “The stars were lecherous/making you lay down/in the cool grass/then the moon/made your invitation/clear as glass/what choice did we have/under cruel skies.”
Hold Still is a poem of substance, simplicity, and beauty with a hint of laissez-faire, “there was also/something I was/looking forward to/no matter…. we are the moment/time vibrates.”
Irene Solà wrote, “The infinite dwells in each of us. Like a window on the top of our heads that we didn’t even know was there,” [Canto jo i la muntanya balla] and she continued claiming that only the poet can open that door and reach the infinite. All you must do to know she was right is to read Swarn Gill’s book Love, Stars, and Paradigms.
Literary Revelations is proud to publish such an unbelievable poetry collection.
Gabriela Marie Milton 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Books:
I am thrilled to let you know that Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology published by Literary Revelations is now a #1 Amazon bestseller. This book was made possible by the gorgeous poems you, poets from around the world, sent us. Thank you for trusting Literary Revelations with your poetry. Congratulations! You are now #1 Amazon bestselling poets. And we are filled with joy.
We planned the official release of the book on January 31. The book was on Amazon on the 26. However, not all Amazon markets were populated [at the hour I write they are still not fully populated] and the book’s categories we not showing. Even now only one category shows. In addition we had other few things to take care of.
However, people found out about the book on the 27th of January. In a matter of hours Hidden in Childhood became a #1 Amazon bestseller.
I am filled with joy and gratitude. Thank you for buying the book. Thank you for supporting Literary Revelations Publishing House.
On our pre-launch Hidden in Childhood show: Our gracious host Victoria Onofrei of Radio Bloomsbury will broadcast the show on Sunday January 29, at 6pm London Time. If you want to listen you can do it here https://www.bil.ac.uk/bloomsburyradio/
You can buy the book here:
Thank you. Have a great weekend.
Gabriela Marie Milton 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Books:
Literary Revelations is thrilled to let you know that Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology is scheduled to be released on January 31. On January 31 I will post the Amazon link where you can buy the book.
Contributors please check your email in the beginning of next week for updates. Those of you who are interested in our anthology please check my blog, the Literary Revelations website, and my social media: Twitter @shortprose1 & IG @gabriela_marie_milton. I cannot tell you how excited I am. The book will be monumental. The paperback version will have 450 pages; 450 pages filled with the light and the shadows of your childhoods; 450 pages filled with tears and smiles. It’s an incredible book.
Zoom Meeting – Radio Show
On Saturday, January 21 a pre-launch meeting for Hidden in Childhood took place. I am most grateful to those of you who participated and to Victoria Onofrei of Bloomsbury Radio for inviting us to her show, Victoria in Verse.
We expect the radio show to be broadcast on Sunday January 29, at 6 pm London time. If no delays I will send our contributors the link where they can listen to the show.
Several thoughts about the zoom meeting: I have participated in many literary meetings, but never in one like ours. You recited your poetry beautifully, you poured your heart into every verse, you shared your experiences in a very meaningful way. You opened up your souls and spoke about the abuses you endured, the trauma that is still with you. You shed tears. Thank you for every tear you shed. Thank you for every word you spoke.
Most of the time people want to convince us how great and confident they are. They want to be perceived as winners. Sharing feelings during a public event is not in the cards. Please know that those of you who shared your feelings with sincerity and took off the mask of hypocrisy are the real winners. Our contributors are all winners. You conquered my heart and you will conquered the hearts of those who will read this anthology. My love to all of you.
Below please find the Amazon Description I wrote for the book
From authors featured on NPR, BBC, and the New York Times, and from emerging poets, comes a monumental anthology in which every poem sends shivers down your spine. Childhood’s joy and trauma expressed – with stunning talent and sincerity – by over 150 poets in more than 280 poems. Childhood spaces magnified by the human memory, populated by good and bad, by trips to hell and heaven, in an almost Hieronymus Bosch type of atmosphere. Over 150 voices call you to read this book. Read it. You will learn that childhood never goes away. You will be reminded of the beauty of the seraphim and the need to protect children from any form of abuse. 150 voices knock on your door. Open the door. A chorus of childhoods will tell you that our children need love.
Literary Revelations is proud to bring you this anthology and deeply grateful to all contributors for pouring out their hearts into the pages of this book.
Thank you again to the contributors to our Literary Revelations Poetry Anthology Hidden in Childhood. I am truly humbled you trusted me with your magnificent poetry. Equally, thank you to everyone who has been supporting our endeavor. I am grateful for your shares, comments, and encouragement.
To the contributors: Please read your email. To celebrate our anthology you are invited to participate on Victoria Onofrei’s Show “Victoria in Verse,” [Radio Bloomsbury] this Saturday January 21 at 10 am Central Time (USA). The show will be recorded this Saturday and it will be broadcast on Sunday January 29, when we hope our anthology will be out (the exact release date depends on Amazon).
On the release date: I will keep everyone posted. Please stay tuned and check your email, my blog, my social media, as well as the Literary Revelations’ website for more updates.
Preface: If you did not read the preface to Hidden in Childhood please read it HERE.
Below please find my reading of my poem included in Hidden in Childhood. I hope you enjoy it.
A reading from Hidden in Childhood – a publication of Literary Revelations. Coming late January.
Oh, sublime morning of my childhood,,,smell of tea and fresh apples, my little frantic body looking for the mysteries from beyond naked provincial statues..
I read your words and a thousand childhoods burrowed into my heart.
Gabriela Marie Milton
My Dear Readers
Thank you to everyone who submitted to Literary Revelations Publishing House’s collection Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology, due to be released late January. If anything changes, I will let you know.
I am thrilled to release the full cover of the anthology and the preface I wrote. I have tears in my eyes. Here is why.
I am beyond humbled by the number of submissions. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for entrusting me with your beautiful poetry. Most important you entrusted me with glimpses of your childhood. That honors me more than words can possibly express. I rarely talk about myself. Yet, last night after 14 hours of work I was listening to the winter knocking on my windows and thinking of your poems. A sentence inscribed itself into my soul. It will stay with me forever. I read your words and a thousand childhoods burrowed into my heart.
We are looking at a monumental work of poetry; a work of breathtaking beauty and substance. I included over 150 poets and around 280 poems. The Word file I will send for formatting tomorrow has 456 pages. I suspect after the formatting the anthology will have over 456 pages. Congratulations to everyone who was included.
I wrote a good number of rejection letters and I am not done yet. To those poets who were rejected: please do not get discouraged. I am honored by your submissions too and ready to collaborate with you in the future.
One other important thing I learned by reading your poems: this collection teaches the reader about childhood perhaps more than an academic treaty could do it.
————–
Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology – preface by Gabriela Marie Milton
If you open the pages of this poetry collection, you will be mesmerized by the talent of the contributors, and by the range of stylistic approaches they use to recreate the world of childhood. It must be said from the beginning that this is not a poetry collection for children. The pages you will read memorialize the beauty and magic of childhood – remembrance of love and fairytales – as well as its ugliness – abuses, poverty – that unfortunately still exist in our world. Some of the authors of the poems included in this anthology were brave enough to talk about the pain they endured in childhood. I salute all contributors: those who tell the world that childhood is love, and those who still bear the wounds of a difficult childhood.
As the editor, curator, and publisher of this book, I am honored and humbled that so many poets entrusted me with their work. The poems I included in this anthology are stunners. They are magnificent in their wealth of emotions, and very diverse in style. It is the role of the editor to try – as much as she/he can- to stylistically unify the works included in poetry collections. To a certain extent, I decided against it. I allowed for English spelling, as well as for American spelling. I overlooked places where perhaps I would have used different words, in the interest of clarity. Why did I do it? Two reasons: (1) These breathtaking poems have their own energy, an energy that continuously echoes in one’s soul, and it sends shivers down the spine of the reader. There is a freshness about them, freshness in front of which the strive for better formulations ends up in patheticism. (2) Perfection is most of the time sterile. There are emblematic poets who sometimes consciously allowed for small degrees of clumsiness – here and there – in their poems in order to preserve the authenticity of the feelings. I hope I did that in this collection.
The themes and archetypes the contributors use are very diverse. You will find the father as the protector and/or as the abuser, the figure of the mother as the nurturer and/or as the monster, the loss of siblings, the heavenly paradise of grandparents, the fight with disease, and the list can continue.
To turn to a different idea, once Charles Baudelaire wrote, “The child sees everything in a state of newness… Nothing more resembles what we call inspiration than the delight with which a small child absorbs form and color.” No doubt, during childhood we are first and foremost the recipients of the sensory world.
The academic literature on childhood – as well as our common understanding – frequently defines childhood as a period of our lives that precedes adulthood. Whatever happens during our first years is formative and important to our becoming. However, we tend to dissociate childhood from maturity. Most people subscribe to the dichotomy of childhood/adulthood.
Indeed, the prima facie reading of the poems included in this anthology shows that the authors kept in mind the dichotomy of childhood/adulthood.
Yet, what strikes the reader during the second and/or third reading of these stunning poems is how present childhood is in the lives of the authors, now mature people. For these poets, whether they know it or not, childhood is not a simple memory filled with joy or pain. Childhood constitutes itself as an integral part of their poems, a part that continues to transform them as they write.
The strength of this poetry collection is the capacity of its authors to blur the line between childhood and adulthood. Whether the authors talk about joyful memories, or sadly abusive childhood, the effect is stunning. We do not know anymore where childhood stops, and adulthood starts.
Am I returning to Philippe Ariès and his Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (1960), who put forward the idea – albeit controversial – that during medieval times childhood was not recognized as a distinct phase of human existence?
No. I am not. I merely claim that the idea of childhood is not as transient as authors such as Ray Bradbury claimed.
In many aspects, childhood never goes away. It stays with us forever.
This is what you will discover in this anthology, which contains the most beautiful, as well as the most heart-wrenching, verses one has ever read. And this is a phenomenal discovery.
I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. I am thrilled to share the front cover of Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology to be released by Literary Revelations Publishing House late January 2023.
Given the high volume of submissions only 75 contributors have received news from me. Please check your email. You may be one of them.
We are still working on selecting new poems so those of you who did not hear from me, please stay tuned. I will be in touch.
Remember submissions are still open until January 3, 2023. You can find the guidelines for submission Here.
I would like to share some of my thoughts on the poems that I have already read.
Thoughts on Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology
As the editor, curator, and publisher of this this book, I am honored and humbled that so many poets entrusted me with their outstanding work. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart.
I am mesmerized by the talent of the contributors, and by the range of stylistic approaches used to recreate the world of childhood. I must say from the beginning that this is not a poetry collection for children. The poems selected memorialize the beauty and magic of childhood – remembrance of love and fairytales – as well as its ugliness – abuses, poverty – that unfortunately still exist in our world. Some of the authors were brave enough to talk about the pain they endured in childhood. I salute all contributors: those who tell the world that childhood is love, and those who still bear the wounds of a very difficult childhood.
Charles Baudelaire wrote, “The child sees everything in a state of newness… Nothing more resembles what we call inspiration than the delight with which a small child absorbs form and color.” No doubt, during childhood we are first and foremost the recipients of the sensory world.
The academic literature on childhood – as well as our common understanding – frequently defines childhood as a period of our lives that precedes adulthood. Whatever happens during our first years is formative and important to our becoming. We tend to dissociate childhood from maturity. Most people subscribe to the dichotomy of childhood/adulthood.
Indeed, the prima facie reading of the magnificent poems we selected shows that the authors kept in mind the dichotomy of childhood/adulthood.
Yet, what strikes the reader during the second and/or third reading of those stunning poems is how present childhood is in the lives of the authors, now mature people. For these exceptional poets, whether they know it or not, childhood is not a simple memory filled with joy or pain. Childhood constitutes itself as an integral part of their poems, a part that continues to transform them as they write.
The strength of this poetry collection will be the capacity of its authors to blur the line between childhood and adulthood. Whether the authors talk about joyful memories, or sadly abusive childhood, the effect is stunning. We do not know anymore where childhood stops, and adulthood starts.
[]
I look forward to reading the poems I still have, and I look forward to new submissions too.
To those of you who celebrate Christmas, a wonderful holiday filled with magic. A hundred year of love to everyone. I will update everyone after Christmas.
Please visit Literary RevelationsPublishing HouseHERE follow and subscribe.
I am thrilled to remind you that Literary Revelations will open its website in early November. Please read more about us and our mission Here.
Our Motto:
“Audentis Fortuna iuvat.” Fortune Favors the Bold. Literary Revelations favors the bold and the talented.
We will open with a call for submissions to a poetry anthology, and a very exciting interview.
Are you ready to explore your childhood and tell us what you see there? Are you ready to bring us the magic, the joy, and perhaps the pain of your childhood? Our anthology will be entitled Hidden in Childhood.
This is not a book for children. This is a book for adults. We expect you to tell us how the experiences of your childhood formed you. We will be ready to listen to you. We will be more than proud to publish your poetry. To inspire you we have chosen three quotes:
As a small child, I felt in my heart two contradictory feelings, the horror of life and the ecstasy of life. ― Charles Baudelaire
For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be. ― John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things
The child, in love with prints and maps, Holds the whole world in his vast appetite. How large the earth is under the lamplight! But in the eyes of memory, how the world is cramped! ― Charles Baudelaire
More information about the anthology and how to submit will be available on the website of Literary Revelations in the beginning of November.
Meantime if you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.
More Updates:
I am very pound I have several poems included in two anthologies.
On October 10, 2022 Vita Brevis Press lunched its forth anthology entitled: What is All This Sweet Work?: A Poetry Anthology About Love and Loss. The book is a stunning collection of poetry edited and curated by Brian Geiger. I am deeply grateful to Brian for including my work in this anthology.
On June 25, 2022 Meghan Dargue launched FromOneLine Volume 3, a superb book of poetry and flash fiction. My thanks to Meg for including me.