The Woman Who Endorsed My Book Also Selected My Writing. Separately. By Accident.
I just dropped by to say I am very proud and also the universe has a sense of humour.
You may have noticed a name on the cover of Maternity Abroad: Becoming a Mother in a Foreign Land. Luciana Gomide. She endorsed the book. She said something lovely about it. I was grateful. Filed it under "good things that happened." Moved on.
And then Luciana opened a call for stories for a Brazilian coletânea (a collective book of real experiences written by women). I submitted. I got picked.
Now. Before you raise an eyebrow — and I can see you raising it — let me explain. The submissions were completely anonymous. No names, or bios. No book covers with anyone's face or endorsement on them. Just the writing. Just the story. Just the words on the page. She had absolutely no idea she was reading something of mine. And she picked it anyway.
No cheating was involved. What happened was simply that someone read my words twice — once on purpose, and once without knowing they were mine. I am choosing to feel extremely good about this and I think that is the correct response.
"A humorous and practical guide answering key questions for newcomers, such as healthcare, finding help — and, of course, the best café in town. A delightful read that warmly supports and embraces immigrant mothers." — LUCIANA GOMIDE, ENDORSING MATERNITY ABROAD: BECOMING A MOTHER IN A FOREIGN LAND
✍️ THE CURATORS
Luciana Gomide
Author · Editor · Teacher · Immigrant · Vancouver, Canada since 2019
Luciana is a mother, immigrant, writer and teacher who has lived in Canada since 2019. She writes pedagogical materials and has worked with publishers for over ten years. In 2021 she independently published Lá no Brasil — a book designed to bring Brazilian culture to Brazilian children living abroad through images and rhymes. It has sold over 2,000 copies and reached 34 countries. In 2024 she published her second children's book, Meus avós que moram longe.
She also runs a writing group and a book club with in-person meetings in Vancouver. She is, in short, exactly the kind of person whose endorsement means something and whose selection process you trust.
✍️ CO-CURATOR
Isabel Arruda
Writer · Poet · Literary Entrepreneur · Canada
Isabel Arruda is a writer, chronicler and poet based in Canada. She has three published books of her own — including A despedida de quem fui(chronicles) and Eu sou o vendaval que dança lá fora (poems) — and has participated in multiple coletâneas. She is trained in journalism, holds a therapeutic certification, a Life Coaching certification, and is completing a postgraduate degree in creative writing at PUC-RJ.
She also co-founded with Luciana, Aldeia — a school of writing and editorial services for Brazilian women living abroad — and has been facilitating groups focused on self-knowledge and personal development since 2019.
📖 THE COLETÂNEA
A collective book of real stories that cross borders — geographical, emotional, symbolic and identity-related. Written by women who lived different processes of change, it brings together intimate accounts of immigration, new beginnings, motherhood, loss, belonging and reconstruction.
Each text reveals a piece of life: what is left behind, what transforms along the way, and what is born when everything feels unknown. It is a book for those who have already crossed. For those who are crossing now. And for those who are yet to cross.
THE AUTHORS OF MULHERES EM TRAVESSIA
Aline Schick, Ana Flávia Camargo, Ana Nunes, Ana Paula Rocha, Bruna Nogueira, Daiane Weber, Dani Balieiro Amorim, Estefania Barsante, Evelyn Fichmann, Fabiana Nasciutti, Fernanda Botelho, Helena Carvalho, Isabella Emmerick, Jessica Gabrielzyk, Julia Zanotelli, Juliani Monçores, Laura Rezende, Liege Leopoldo, Livia Forte, Lúcia Green, Mari Matias, Markelly Martins, Maythe Panar, Mel Fariña, Melissa Silva, Michele Toledo, Monica Candido, Moniza Perim, Nayra Prata, Pequena Sapeca, Rebeca Feydyt, Regiane Tiglia, Renata Maciel, Rita Pellegrini.
I also noticed that Dani Balieiro Amorim is in there — the same Dani who wrote about moving to Austin with her son Ben and mentioned My First American Coloring Book as a tool she wished she had. The intercultural world is a small and very specific room and I keep finding the same people in it. At this point I am not even surprised. Just delighted.
The book had its launch party in Canada. I was not there — Switzerland is Switzerland and Canada is Canada and the flight between them is long and I had things on. But I watched every video. I looked at every picture. I sat with my phone doing the thing where you zoom in on photos trying to see if the room felt like what it should feel like for a book like this to arrive in the world.
It did. It looked exactly right. And I was proud from a very significant distance.
I am proud to be included. That is the whole post. I did not come here with a lesson or a long reflection. Just: my writing was selected, anonymously, on its own merit, by someone who had already read my work and did not know she was reading it again. And there was a party. And I was not at the party. But the writing was. And that counts.
Luciana: thank you for the endorsement.
Luaciana & Isabel: Thank you for the selection. And thank you for running a process that made it impossible to cheat, which means I get to feel completely, unreservedly good about this. That is a gift.
Proud, grateful, and slightly amazed by the coincidence,
Jessica Gabrielzyk
✦ MULHERES EM TRAVESSIA · MATERNITY ABROAD · THE WRITING FOUND ITS WAY BACK ✦
