A Second Chance for a New Dawn: The Journey
Growing up in Puerto Rico, I heard this often: “No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano.” It means sunrise doesn't come any sooner simply because we wake up a lot earlier. This new dawning has taken a lot of time to arrive for me, but it's almost here: Orange Blossom Publishing (OBP) will release my new book on May 3, 2023! Writing, building, and editing this poetic memoir hasn't been an easy journey. Here's what it took to get my book published.
Cover Reveal
This beautiful cover was designed by Sanja of Blacklady Design. She was a joy to work with!
Over many months now, I’ve been working on the second edition of my award-winning book Alborada, a Poetic Memoir Across Cultures, now retitled Alborada (Dawn): A Cross-Cultural Memoir in Poetry. When it was first published in 2014, I had no idea I was dealing with a vanity press and, in my ignorance of all things related to publication, I was grateful to get my work out in the world. Soon after it won a Silver Palms Award from Florida Writers Association, I realized I couldn’t afford to continue dishing out cash to promote the book and that I would have to publish it on my own. The result was that, after I sold out of all but three copies of the original print run, Alborada languished in my bookshelf and was never truly out in the world.
It has not been an easy journey waiting for this new dawn.
During several years I was plagued by myriad physical symptoms that included brain fog and exhaustion and was afraid I wouldn’t be able to write another word. I flagellated myself without mercy for that. And then I discovered two drugs that were making me sick and that an excess of refined sugar in my diet was the reason for my sluggish brain and lack of energy—I had to forgive myself!
As soon as I felt better, I knew I wanted to give Alborada another chance at life. Arielle Haughee of OBP graciously accepted my book for a second edition and asked me to add “a few” more poems: eight or so. I started digging around my old files and discovered over fifty pieces of poetry that I didn’t remember writing.—While my body was discouragingly depleted, my creative brain had figured out a way to continue writing poetry without letting me know what was happening. I am still filled with amazement and gratitude for this gift.
After I gathered all my “new” compositions together, I got in touch with friends (poets, writers, and avid readers) and asked them to give me honest feedback on them. Some were extraordinarily thorough in their responses. All were quite encouraging. Next, The Writers Hotel’s editors Shanna McNair and Scott Wolven read thirty-five of my verses and suggested edits to polish them up. After three days working with renowned poets at The Writers Hotel (TWH), I had several new poems and was inspired to make more changes to my old ones. I read three of them at an online event hosted by TWH that were very well-received.
Now I had dozens of poems that were ready to see the light of day, but first I had to determine which would fit within the thematic organization of the original Alborada. Teresa Bruce, my editor, and I ended up choosing thirteen new works that enhanced the story originally told and I settled into creating a refreshed website and newsletter while she worked on them some more.
At the time I least expected it Teresa had an inspired suggestion. At the beginning of the first book there is a poem titled “Growth Song” describing my joy at singing with my whole heart as a little girl to the world around me and the heartbreak of having my beloved cousins make fun of my singing. At the end of the book, Teresa pointed out, there is a poem called “I Can Sing” that expresses my emotional healing after a traumatic divorce. She suggested a new poem for the middle of the book in which I shared the reasons for not being able to sing for many years. My stomach immediately clenched and my palms started to sweat at the thought of having to confront such excruciating memories again. I knew I had to do it right away.
“The Lifespan of a Song” burst out of me in a manner of minutes. It was like the nine-minute labor for one of my daughters—it caught me unprepared, was terribly painful, but ended with a beautiful baby before I could even realize what was going on. Teresa was right: Alborada needed that poem.
Today, all these years after my first Alborada, I am excited to say that a wonderful indie press will release the revised and enhanced edition of the book. This new version, 143.75% the size of the original, has fourteen poems that are brand-new to this reprinting. Ten of those in the first book have been slightly edited (improved!) for the second edition thanks to the motivation and inspiration provided by my amazing editor, Teresa Bruce.
Here is the end result of that long journey and the reason to celebrate a brand new dawn, as expressed by Teresa Bruce:
In Alborada (Dawn): A Cross-Cultural Memoir in Poetry, Nylda Dieppa sketches the formative and transformative experiences of her lifetime—from childhood on the island of Puerto Rico through maturity in the continental United States—as paralleled by the sun’s passage through the times of the day. This enhanced, retitled edition of Dieppa’s award-winning Alborada: A Poetic Memoir Across Cultures adds fourteen new and ten revised poems to inspire the joys of spiritual and emotional healing.
From the dawning innocence of a girl’s first crush alongside the rise of a young woman’s longing to belong and be loved, Dieppa shines daylight on the anguish and delights of both growing up and parenting at every age. Her lyrical and narrative poems highlight the shadows cast by culture shock, and they reveal the encroaching darkness of sorrow and betrayal as the sun sets on a thirty-eight-year marriage. Yet Alborada also illuminates the wonder of deliverance from midnight’s despair to the hope and wholeness of a new day’s dawn.
Safe, persistent, and happy travels on your own writing journey!
