Gregory Joseph Firlotte

Gregory Joseph Firlotte -- a self-described American Romantic poet -- was born in Gardiner, Maine in 1953 and spent his youth reading about history, travel, art and poetry at the 1881 Gardiner Public Library. He began writing poetry and short stories in elementary school and credits his mother Mabel Annie Chick -- a poet and writer herself -- as his inspiration. With Gardiner being the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edwin Arlington Robinson, it is not surprising that Firlotte has also found much inspiration in his hometown "poetic hero" and his prolific output.

Firlotte wrote essays in college at the University of Maine at Augusta and went on to have his first feature story on Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith published in the Maine Sunday Telegram in 1981. Later that year after moving to Los Angeles to join his family, Firlotte became the Arts and New Products Editor at the now-defunct Designers West Magazine and, for almost four decades, has written about design, architecture and art. His feature stories and his photography of people and interior design products have appeared in such publications as Architectural Digest, Veranda Magazine, The World of Interiors Magazine, LA Design Magazine and The Los Angeles Times to name a few.

Firlotte released his first book of poetry In This New England in 2020, followed by Gilded Summer in 2021. Both books are available on Amazon. His poems have also appeared in three anthologies from PoetrySoup.com. In December 2025, the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce released From WeHo with Love, the first-ever coffee table book to document 100 years of West Hollywood history from 1921 to 2021, which Firlotte researched and wrote over the course of six years. It is available directly from the Chamber. The book's Foreword was written by four-time Grammy winner Lou Adler.