Meet the Editors: Gabriela V. Everett
In celebration of submissions opening, we are reintroducing ourselves! Get to know our editors better—today with Art, Fiction, and Nonfiction Editor, Gabriela V. Everett!
Who or what is your biggest inspiration as a writer/editor/artist?
I am most inspired by problems without answers. Things that make you think too much at night, the truths that are stranger than fiction. I write to tell secrets; it’s not telling if no one knows it’s real, right? Perhaps an alien is not an alien, and that bad thing never happened. It’s like confession—I let the words carry the weight, then I walk away a little lighter.
What drew you to the genre(s) you edit at Mulberry Literary?
I love the imagination and room for surreal realities in fiction. It's a place you can express truth, styled in whatever way you want. There's room for "literal" metaphor. Your dreams and demons are real, and now you can dialogue with them in flesh and blood. It's unique a way to transmute things.
What got you into editing in the first place?
I got into editing just by nature of writing. If writing is a road, editing is the sidewalk that helps give it shape. Working on Columbia's Hair Trigger Magazine was my first introduction to editing batches of work, and I fell in love with the process of reading, pondering, then helping tidy or dress up the details of the pieces. It made me a better writer; the wide exposure to other writers is inspiring and creates a feedback loop where I read, then write, then want to read some more. Rinse and repeat.
What draws you to literary and/or art spaces?
Ideas! All expression is the human need to connect—sharing ideas is one of the most beautiful parts of that process. Ideas can carry immense power, and it can be subtle. I love to see what's out there, what's happening and causing a stir. I'm always on the hunt for something curious.
Do you have a routine that puts you in the editorial headspace? What is it?
Caffeine, I think. Black coffee or green tea. Pick up the coffee, sit the ass down. Open the pages. I really like editing on hard copies when possible. I'll get out highlighters and colored pens to invigorate things.
Do you have a go-to reading/editing spot?
Coffee shops or corners for sure. Coffee shops for the added pressure of eyes; it makes me more productive. Having the sense that someone's watching makes me want to perform better. Corners because they're private—that's for if I need extra focus.
What's the coolest reading spot you know of?
I think my all-time, favorite spot was a corner of Grant Park in Chicago. It's tucked away by one of the bridges, and I would spread out a plaid scarf and lay there and read. If I needed to reflect, I could stare through the leaves of this big tree. In the fall it became this patch of sky cut up by the bare branches. I miss this spot often since moving back to Vegas. I'll honestly read anywhere from work to bars, though. I like to carry books in my purse for spontaneous downtime.
Anything new and exciting you're working on or working toward as an artist, writer, and/or editor?
I've been slowly getting some soft sci-fi stories together for collection and working on some personal essays. I've always been shy about examining my family and life. Being mixed and having an immigrant father puts me in limbo between being fully "other" or plainly, suburban-American. Interrogating what it means to be Latina when I've grown up largely divorced from that part of my heritage evokes complex feelings about who I am—if I'm "enough" for the communities I am tied to through blood. I think it's a common experience for anyone who's first generation or mixed in the US. There are degrees to how much families will encourage assimilation. Considering loving intentions paired the role of politics, education, and economics, brings a blend of heartache and compassion for such compromises. I am still sorting the pieces, but I know they're all real, all me.
Gabriela V. Everett is a mixed-race, queer writer from Las Vegas, NV. She possesses a BA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and an affinity for coffee at midnight. Her work appears in Glyph, Hair Trigger, Allium, Mulberry Literary (prior to taking up an editorial role), Dream Noir, and is forthcoming in Main Squeeze Magazine. Her piece, "Love Poems for Death”, received Glyph’s award for Best New Voice in 2016.
Her artwork can be found on Instagram @livedeadly.