The Long Wait is Over for Marius ND

By Cris Santos

Raw, intense, and remarkable. These words encapsulate the writings of Marius ND, a young artist who turned to poetry during the pandemic as a way to cope with the stress and uncertainty of the world. Her writing became a daily ritual, providing a sense of stability and comfort during a tumultuous time. Despite being steeped in art, music, and literature at an early age, publishing a book used to be a novel concept to her.

“Teacher Roel first brought the idea up to me in 2019, and at that point I was still pretty unsure about it. It was only in 2021 when I realized I really wanted people to read my work, and I thought about finally making an anthology of sorts. When I started compiling stuff, it started as a collection of basically all the things I’d written up to that point. There were a bunch of poems, yes, but there were also a bunch of short stories and essays,” she shares.

Marius adds, “I decided that it would be best for me to solely keep my poetry. So for almost another year, I wrote and compiled and revised and removed poems, copy-pasting them from my notes app and manually rewriting them from my journals. It took quite a while to make sure everything was perfect.”

Marius’ poems brim with solace and inspiration, yet they also simmer with rage and angst. Be warned, for these are not simply random rants from a teenager, but are carefully crafted messages drawn from her personal experience and observation. Her approach to poetry writing is the product of her exposure to literature as well as to the workshops she had been to.

“I’ve been going to creative writing workshops since I was around 7 or 8 years old, and in grade 4 I joined my elementary school’s publication but only ever wrote two or three articles in total. As for publishing poetry, I’ve had some of my works published in Write Things’ annual anthology In Our Own Words since 2017.”

When asked what her favorite poems are, the author cites Existential Dread and Transcending Realities.

“The former poem kind of sums up what one should expect from the collection, even if it does come at the end. On the other hand, I really like Transcending Realities because of how different it is from the other poems in my book. In comparison to most of my poetry, it’s pretty light and I like how it’s kind of a break from all the dark, folklore-ish themes of my other poems,” Marius explains.

Moreover, the author could not be happy enough with the release of She Lies in Wait. “Honestly, I’m a little overwhelmed by everything but also happy. It’s very interesting to see all my hard work come to fruition. When I got the first copy of my book, I was really excited about the cover and the printing. I self-published a short story in 2020, and compared to that, this definitely feels more fun.”

On top of this, Marius will be launching and signing her book on May 20 at Fully Booked BGC. The event is supported by 8letters Publishing and 25 Productions, and sponsored by TDC Professionals Consulting, Inc., Global Power Solutions Asia Inc., Casal + Nalda Design & Build Co., and Proficient Link Realty Corporation.

She Lies in Wait is now available at the 8letters Bookstore for PHP290. Grab a copy here.