Meet Romina Garber

We had the good fortune of connecting with Romina Garber and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Romina, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I was nine years old when I discovered that nothing in this world could touch me as deeply as a well-placed word.
My family had immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina only four years earlier, so I didn’t hear English at home. Yet every day after lunch, my fourth-grade teacher would read to us from Shel Silverstein’s masterpiece, Where the Sidewalk Ends.
It was in those stories that I truly heard the language for the first time.
I don’t think I understood the meaning of Shel’s poetry or prose—rather, what fascinated me was the way certain sentences sounded together, the way words could be arranged into symphonies, the way they awoke emotions in me that I couldn’t rationalize.
I immediately began composing sentences of my own. I wrote my first poem—in Spanish—called Si yo fuera la luz (If I were the light), and I was shocked when my Spanish teacher liked it enough to submit it to the Miami county fair. But I was downright stunned when I won first place.
Soon, I was carrying a Barbie binder with me everywhere, filled with my musings and poems and stories, written in both languages. And I haven’t stopped writing since.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
After college, I spent the better part of a decade writing five unique novels, each in the 400-page range—and every single one of them was rejected.
During that time, I thought about giving up so often . . . yet if I hadn’t picked myself up and started working on novel number six, I wouldn’t be doing this interview right now.
The road to publication is not an easy one, but if you can’t stop writing, even when it feels like the whole world is telling you to quit, then I have news for you: You are a writer. And that means the only person who can truly stop you is you.
So, if you’re an aspiring author reading this, and you’ve also been broken by rejection, I’m here to tell you to hang in there.
Do not give up on yourself.
All it takes is ONE yes.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Meals: Lettuce & Tomato for Argentine-Asian fusion, Rusty Pelican for a meal with a view, Planta Queen for vegan food you’d never know is vegan

Coffee/sweets: Café del Alma for great coffee, Luciano’s for the best ice cream, Graziano’s for tasty Argentine treats

Atmosphere/mingling: Lagniappe for drinks, resort day pass at the Fontainebleau, Wynwood walls to snap some cool pics

Entertainment: Faena theater to catch a show, Books & Books for an author event, Gulfstream Brewing for a packed trivia night

Shopping: Aventura Mall for the most variety, Bal Harbour shops to window-shop, Sawgrass Mills for outlet deals

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The summer after my senior year of high school, I interned at the Miami Herald. As interns, we had been explicitly told that we were not to go into the editor-in-chief’s office—but I was a seventeen-year-old in possession of an idea, so nothing was stopping me.
At the time, newspaper subscriptions were plummeting, particularly among younger generations, in the wake of the digital transformation. The Herald had been conducting focus groups among the interns to come up with solutions, which must have emboldened me.
I marched right into then-editor Tom Fiedler’s office, and I told him that the reason younger readers weren’t interested in the paper was that no one was writing for us. Then I pitched him a column I could pen from Harvard in the fall, dispelling mysteries and misconceptions about student life at the ivy league.
To my utter bewilderment, he not only loved the idea, but he walked me right over to the features editor’s office, and I got the green light that day. The column was called “College She Wrote,” and I wrote it weekly from my dorm room. It was such a hit that the Herald decided to publish it in the Sunday edition of the paper, and it was even picked up for national syndication.
I still can’t believe the faith that Tom and the Herald placed in me then, and to this day I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity. It was thanks to this column that I discovered my voice and my audience—once I started writing for teens, I never stopped.

Website: https://www.rominagarber.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rominagarber

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romina-garber-5663043/

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/rominagarber

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rominabooks