Queries: To contact Erika directly, please email hello at erikagill dot com.

Photos: available for re-use, but please credit the photographer, Cesar Prieto.

Erika’s work:

Lone Yellow Flower (forthcoming, Querencia Press) is a collection of poetry focusing on identity, human connection, nature and environmental themes, mental health, racism, resistance, and joy.

Press:

Singular, charming work. Gill’s poetry shines where passion, precision, memory, vision, all meet in harmony and chaos. A dynamic collection full of wonder and magic.

 — Jose Hernandez Diaz, author of The Parachutist & Bad Mexican, Bad American

Erika Gill’s poetry vibe checks the pulse of us, writing of memorial spaces, aloneness and quiet with the affect of a warm window looking into a broken world. The inner monologue of this collection seems largely to have taken shape within the pandemic’s gilded nature; Gill addresses death to come “by covid or cop / enlarged, encapsulating.” They write of the heart, that they “never loved with that spare part.” They write of ruined blackberries and carpets grieved deeply through the lens of reductive loss. Erika writes through a system of grieving with an open heart, reaching out, into and through the music of Phoebe Bridgers, through the blossoms growing in a neighbor’s yard, and in contemplation of a greater good for justice. As the collection tapers away, we feel a sense of having been tapered ourselves; whittled down to our barest bone.

 —Eszter Takacs, author of Together We Will Talk Right Down to Earth & The Spectacular Crash

About Erika:

50 word bio:

Erika Gill (they/them) lives on unceded Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) land in Denver. Erika is Editor in Chief of Alternative Milk Magazine. Their poetry appears in Rigorous, MORIA, Birdy, and others. Their collection, Lone Yellow Flower, is forthcoming from Querencia Press. Twitter: @invariablyso

90 word bio:

Erika Gill (they/them) lives, writes and builds community on unceded Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) land in Denver, Colorado. Erika is the Editor in Chief of Alternative Milk Magazine, an independent biannual literary and art magazine. They grew up longest in Victorville, CA, which is notable only in being the filming location of The Hills Have Eyes. Erika’s poetry may be found in Rigorous, MORIA, Birdy, and other spaces. Their first collection of poetry, Lone Yellow Flower, is forthcoming from Querencia Press. Twitter: @invariablyso

300 word bio:

Erika Gill (they/them) lives, writes and builds community on unceded Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) land in Denver, Colorado, where they do billing at a translations technology company. They also wait tables at a restaurant. In addition, they’re the Editor in Chief of Alternative Milk Magazine, an independent biannual literary and art magazine. In other lives, Erika has been a flight attendant, actor, elementary after-school program teacher, and a music journalist. They were born in Orange, California, and after a 5 year childhood stint in Oklahoma, they grew up longest in the upper Mojave Desert in Victorville, CA, which is notable only in being the filming location of The Hills Have Eyes. 

Erika was a nontraditional university student who studied English with a focus on Literature, and did most of the minor coursework in French, Journalism, and Political Science at Loyola Marymount University.

Erika has a long history of starting and abandoning fiction projects. They won the Victor Valley College Writing contest for Poetry in 2010 and placed second in Fiction in 2009 and 2010. Their poetry may be found in Rigorous, MORIA, Birdy, petrichor and others. 

Erika is the author of Lone Yellow Flower, a collection of poetry focusing on identity, human connection, nature and environmental themes, mental health, racism, resistance, and joy (Querencia Press, forthcoming).

They live in Denver with their two cats, Delphine and Onyx, and their elderly German Shepherd Dog, Matrix, along with an unreasonable number of houseplants. Erika is a karaoke enthusiast, and enjoys trying new foods, reading about cryptids, and crocheting while watching kdramas. When capitalism allows, they enjoy painting and writing music and would love to release a music project some day. Erika can be found on the internet at erikagill.com and on social media @invariablyso.

Awards:

• 2009: Victor Valley College Writing Contest, 2nd Place, Short Story: “Observations From A Shop Window”
• 2010 Victor Valley College Writing Contest ,1st Place, Poetry: “What Is Worth?”,
• 2010 Victor Valley College Writing Contest, 3rd Place, Poetry: “I Sought Refuge Where The Rocks Cleft,”
• 2010 Victor Valley College Writing Contest, 2nd Place, Short Story: “Break.”