TALE OF AN AWARD-WINNING FILIPINO AMERICAN AUTHOR
Victoria Grageda-Smith is a first-generation Filipino immigrant in the US who is a lawyer turned award-winning author published in all the creative writing genres of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
She was born in the Philippines, the eldest of ten children in a family of humble means. Through full academic merit scholarships, she graduated Magna Cum Laude in her pre-law class and ranked among the top of her law class at The College of Law, University of the Philippines. She also earned a Master of Law from The University of Michigan School of Law. She served as associate counsel in one of Manila’s most prestigious law firms, Sycip Salazar, Hernandez & Gatmaitan, before becoming the only female attorney in the twenty-five-lawyer legal department of one of Southeast Asia’s oldest and largest global corporate conglomerates, San Miguel Corporation.
She was on track to establish her own law firm when life threw the proverbial wrench at her well-laid plans: she met, fell in love with, and married an American, and moved to the US to build a life with him. The challenges of an immigrant having to start over in both personal and professional lives, including motherhood without her usual support network of Philippine family and friends amid her husband's frequent career-related travel, compelled her to choose to be her children’s at-home caregiver.
It was while raising her young children that she rediscovered a childhood passion: creative writing. She wrote while doing laundry, cooking, waiting for her children to come out of school, private lessons, sports, and other extracurricular activities, and after tucking them into bed. She joined various writers’ clubs—among them, the Austin Fiction Writers Group, Writers League of Texas, Novels-in-Progress Group, and the Ventura County Writers Club, of which she was elected vice-president.
Lending her a powerful and unique perspective that informs and inspires her writing are her Philippine heritage and law practice years, her long history of social justice and human rights advocacy, her immigrant experience, and her family’s travels abroad and frequent moves across the US in connection with her husband’s career.
Her debut novel, THE THOMASITE (Orange Blossom Publishing, 2023) was featured among the headliner authors’ works in the 2023 Orcas Island Lit Fest. She is also the author of the Driftless Unsolicited Award-winning novella, FAITH HEALER (Brain Mill Press, 2016). The first time she submitted to a nationwide short story writing contest, her story, “Portrait of the Other Lady,” won first place in the Fifth Annual Ventura County Star - Ventura County Writers Club Short Story Contest and was published in a Los Angeles area newspaper (Ventura County Star, November 28, 2004). Her story collection manuscript, FAITH HEALER AND OTHER STORIES, was a semi-finalist in the 2015 Elixir Press’ Fiction Award contest.
She is the author of the Kirkus-acclaimed book of poems, WARRIOR HEART, PILGRIM SOUL: AN IMMIGRANT’S JOURNEY (Amazon, 2013). Her poetry appears in various literary journals including, among others, the Slippery Elm Journal, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, New Millennium Writings, Reed Magazine, Lyrical Iowa, and Dicta (The University of Michigan School of Law literary journal). Her poems were finalists in the 42nd New Millennium Poetry Awards, 2016 Knightville Poetry Contest, and 2016 Edwin Markham Poetry Award, and the 2016 Crosswinds Poetry Journal International Contest recognized one of her poems with Honorable Mention.
Her essay, “Gatekeepers and Gatecrashers in Contemporary American Poetry: Reflections of a Filipino Immigrant Poet in the United States,” appears in the anthology, OTHERS WILL ENTER THE GATES: IMMIGRANT POETS ON POETRY, INFLUENCES, AND WRITING IN AMERICA (Black Lawrence Press, 2015).
She is the author of two new book manuscripts: DAUGHTERS OF THE BAMBOO, a story collection, and MOTHERS OF EXILES, a second poetry collection. Her works-in-progress include a World War II literary historical fiction novel and a Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel premised on global climate warming.
In recognition of her accomplishments, the Marquist - Who’s Who List has honored her as a 2024 listee.
When Victoria isn’t writing, she likes to read or walk in the woods and on the beach with her husband, their dog, and their visiting children and friends at their island home in the Puget Sound. Having imagined herself in her youth exclusively as a professional career woman working outside the home, she has surprised herself by being a happy homebody who, according to family and friends, is a great intuitive cook (she could often reverse-engineer or deconstruct gourmet restaurant dishes and reproduce them) with a like talent and passion for home and garden design.
