First, dab balm on the pale, chapped lips. Next, offer a sip of water from a straw. Then, spoon the soup gently into the trembling mouth: chicken soup, but not the kind they serve in this country, heated straight from a can that Warhol had passed off as art: the noodles—soggy short strips or floating alphabets no oracle could […]
Victoria Grageda-Smith
Victoria Grageda-Smith is an award-winning Filipino American author published in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Her poems were finalists in the 2024 Yellow Arrow Publishing Chapbook Contest, 2017 New Millennium Poetry Awards, 2016 Edwin Markham Poetry Award Contest, 2016 Knightville Poetry Contest, and 2016 Cross- winds Poetry Journal Contest and appear in, among others, Reed Magazine, Slippery Elm Journal, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, New Millennium Writings, and Dicta. Her poetry collection, WARRIOR HEART, PILGRIM SOUL: An Immigrant’s Journey (CreateSpace, 2013), was well received by Kirkus Reviews. She wrote the 2024 BookFest Award-winning novel, THE THOMASITE (Orange Blossom Publishing, 2023); the Driftless Unsolicited Award-winning novella, FAITH HEALER (Brain Mill Press, 2016); and the Fifth Annual Ventura County Star-Ventura County Writers Club First-Place-winning short story, Portrait of the Other Lady (Ventura County Star, November 28, 2004).