Magdalena Gómez, Author

"Gómez’s masterpiece heals as it startles, a chronology
of nuestra America from the vantage point
of the South Bronx in the last quarter of the 20th century."
-Dr. Benjamin Barson, Fulbright-García Robles Scholar

​"I'm loving Mi'ja! You are so creative and imaginative
and witty and deeply touching and inspiring!"
 -Muriel Fox, Co-founder of N.O.W.
The National Organization for Women
New Book!  Now Available!
Mi'ja
A Memoir Noir

​Hardcover. Paperback. Kindle.
Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Bookshop.org. Your favorite Indie Bookstore.
     Mi’ja is a new voice for old wounds, a time machine we are all invited to enter to reclaim the genius of our youth, an opportunity to revisit the loneliness and wonder of things we could see and understand only as children. At once heartbreaking and hilarious, Mi’ja chronicles the first nineteen years of the life of poet laureate, acclaimed playwright, and educator Magdalena Gómez—a life not meant for a child, nor is this book. It is fairytales and bestiaries in ceiling cracks; mythologies on the fire escape; realities of how the smallest acts of kindness can conquer despair. This book will reward you with revelations and celebrations of your own life; it may help you remember or perhaps even discover your truest, most honest self. 

Author and Activist, Aurora Levins Morales, shares a recent deep and personal look at her reading of  Mi'ja here:   bit.ly/3QQA6x3
Purchase here: 
​Amazon.com     BarnesandNoble.com   https://bookshop.org/books/mi-ja/9781956474053   
​Or, order from your favorite Indie Bookstore!
​Book cover image a gift from www.sarahhaviland.com
​Cover design: Naomi Rosenblatt
Author. Poet. Activist. Playwright. Educator. Performer.
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Magdalena Gómez is Poet Laureate of Springfield, MA, where she co-founded Teatro V!da, a performing arts collective; she is also an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, the author of Shameless Woman (Red Sugarcane Press) and the co-editor of Bullying: Replies, Rebuttals, Confessions, and Catharsis (Skyhorse, 2012). In 2019 she received the Latinas 50 Plus Literature Award at Fordham University, and the Latinx Excellence on the Hill Award from the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus of MA at the State House. The nationally acclaimed musical Dancing in My Cockroach Killers, based on a dozen of her poems and produced by Pregones/PRTT, has been performed in Los Angeles, DC, Massachusetts, and Off-Broadway in New York City. Born to a Puerto Rican mother and Spanish Roma father, Gómez has been writing, performing and telling stories since early childhood. A devotee of Lorca, Emerson, and Chinese women poets since the third grade, this eclectic thinker is at once fierce and tender, one who creates a mystical bond with every audience.
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"We do nothing alone; every interaction in our lives and how we respond to them, makes us who we are.

​Thank you all for your presence in my life and for welcoming me into yours."
-Magdalena Gómez


                

​                  Photo: www.georgemalve.com
Learn more about Magdalena: www.latinapoet.com
The time for the creation of this publication is made possible by the Academy of American Poets with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
​and the ongoing support of Amherst Media.
Further creative development of Mi'ja will be supported in part with generous funding and support from the the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, in collaboration with MASS MoCA'S Assets for Artists Program. Special thanks to Pregones/PRTT Theater of their on-going generosity, support, and for hosting, producing and funding the NYC Mi'ja book launch and celebration. Special thanks also to Amherst Media and Rhina Valentin, La Reina del Barrio, for on-going media
​support and documentation. Special thanks to Leah Poller for being an on-going supporter and offering generous hospitality in her Harlem, NYC Arts Salon. Heartfelt thanks to Art for the Soul Gallery, the only Black Woman Founded and Owned Gallery in Western, MA. Inclusive. Diverse. Equitable.
Featuring world-class artists alongside those at the early stages of their careers. A community gallery that features interdisciplinary arts. A Mi'ja supporter.