Today I’m interviewing Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, the author of Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything, which debuted in August 2020 and was one of my absolute favorite books of the year.
Raquel is a Mexican American poet, novelist and painter. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 2017. She’s most inspired by fog and seeds and the lineages of all things. When not writing, Raquel tells stories to her plants and they tell her stories back. She lives in Tennessee with her beloved family and mountains.
Today, we’re talking about what it was like debuting during a pandemic after her own bout with COVID, movement as a tool for healing, and maintaining a creative practice 300 words at a time.
Raquel is so full of wisdom and I absolutely loved our conversation. And if you, like me, have found it especially difficult to be creative this year, I know you’ll love it too.
If you’d like to learn more about Raquel or her books, please visit her website at RaquelVasquezGilliland.com or find her on social media @poet_RaquelVGIL. And be sure to buy her debut novel, Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything published by Simon & Schuster, at your local indie bookstore.
