UNDER THE
SAMÁN TREE
poems on home, longing, & belonging
Dominican. Believer. Wife. Mother. Immigrant. These are the different labels Rosa Lía Gilbert has learned to embody, in all of their beauty and complexity. In her debut collection, Under the Samán Tree, Gilbert takes readers on a journey across the ocean, back to the Dominican Republic, where she longs to be. Along the way, she invites them to walk through the American immigrant experience with her.
Written in a lyrical and bilingual voice, these poems will leave the reader nostalgic and even homesick for a place they never knew they longed for, while seeking to answer the questions, Where do we belong? Does a perfect home exist? Or is it all just a tropical dream? Full of bursts of life, vibrant Caribbean imagery, and Spanish musicality, Gilbert’s collection translates into a universal story of home, exile, and faith, as Whitney Rio-Ross, poetry editor of Fare Forward, so aptly applauds.
Published with THE WAY BACK BOOKS
praise for
UNDER THE SAMÁN TREE
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Rosa Lía Gilbert’s poems capture longings that often feel too profound to articulate. Her earnest voice, palpable imagery, and bilingual musicality bring her experience as a Dominican woman and immigrant to life and translate it into a universal story of home, exile, and faith. I trust that Gilbert’s poetry will resonate with readers and that the God who holds her fractured heart together will speak through it.
—WHITNEY RIO-ROSS, author of Birthmarks
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Under the Samán Tree is an aching collection that pulsates with dual longings and language. This book is so necessary for our exact cultural moment that calling it ‘timely’ would be an injustice... It was born for such a time as this. Rosa offers an intimate look at what it feels like to belong to two places at once.
—DEIDRE BRALEY, author of The Shape I Take
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La mujer detrás de estos versos se niega a ceder su lugar, su derecho sagrado a ese lugar de origen que es tan contundente como elusivo. El olor de una fruta, un acento que recuerda el vaivén del mar, la lengua bifurcada de los que se van sin dejar de pertenecer… poemas que piensan, que acompañan, que consuelan. Qué alivio encontrar una voz que sabe nombrar el dolor, el miedo, la injusticia, pero también la belleza, la fe, el milagro.
—MARGARITA PINTADO BURGOS, author of Ojo en celo/Eye in Heat
Rosa Lía Gilbert is a believer, wife, mother, and poet. Her work has been published in Fare Forward, Inkwell, America Magazine, and Prosetrics Literary Magazine, among others. She was born and raised in the Dominican Republic but now lives in Washington, alongside her husband and three-year-old daughter. Whenever she’s not juggling family life, she is writing bilingual poems on whatever piece of paper she can find. She considers herself to be a hope-filled and sojourn-minded poet.
Rosa was formerly part of the Calla Press Publishing team as their publishing assistant and has recently stepped into a new role at Vessels of Light Literary Journal as their Spanish poetry translator and assistant editor. She has also been selected as a fellow for Christianity Today’s Young Storytellers Fellowship. You can find Rosa’s writing on her Substack newsletter, In Light of Eternity, as well as her Instagram @rosagilbertpoetry.
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