At the entrance was a very large security guard chatting with another man who referred to him as Dinnerplate. Having recently been employed as a security guard, I felt a connection with my uniformed brethren. “Excuse me . . . uh . . . Dinnerplate,” I said. “Can you tell me where I can give my updated contact information?” He gave me a stern look. “My name is Officer Fortune,” he said, “William A. Fortune, and you will address me as such!” I looked at the tattoo on his neck. It read Dinnerplate in cursive, although he may have been better served had it read Thinnerplate. “OK,” I replied, heading to the customer service windows where I was told — in so many words — to sit down, shut up, and wait my turn like a good boy . . .
Liquid: The Daily Post Photo Challenge, 16 May 2018
May 17, 2018 at 5:41 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, postaday, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: California, Garden, postaday, postaweek, Redwood City, Wordpress
For this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge, LIQUID, self decided to break with her usual habit of scouring her archives. Instead, she decided to take pictures of liquids.
Since this is also a hard-at-work day for her (writing), she’s at home. What is liquid in her home? Here are three things:
Other LIQUID:
- Hot Dogs and Marmalade
- Through the Lens
- Simply Snapshots
- ispeakloudthoughts
- More 2 Explore
- Julie Powell
- Stuff and what if . . .
- Rois
- Valley of Stars
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Place in the World 4: Books
May 14, 2018 at 6:12 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, Places, postaday, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, Mondays, novel, postaday, postaweek, Wordpress, ZZ Packer
Had we but world enough and time . . .
— Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”
Work-in-Progress: The Rorqual
May 14, 2018 at 3:05 pm (Explorers, Filipino Writers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: dystopia, environment, fantasy, horror, Mondays, short story, work-in-progress
Word Count: 6,313
The day he noticed the first strange animals, Pitt had been missing over a week. Joshua was looking down at a bird. He couldn’t be sure what kind of bird it was, it had an odd wing structure.
He felt a premonition, a twinge. He got those, sometimes, every year or so. It was always a signal of some change, not always bad.
Novel-in-Progress: A Priest’s Letter to His Superior in Madrid, 24 March 1760
May 8, 2018 at 5:45 pm (Filipino Writers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: historical fiction, novel, The Philippines, work-in-progress
Before, the natives were mere shadows, moving silently through the forest, keeping their distance. They left scarcely more evidence of their comings and goings than wild animals. The forest is their home, and I do my utmost to show them that I respect it, as much as they do. I know that they feel themselves intimately connected to the great Nature around and about them. They believe Spirits live in the whispering trees and speak to them from babbling streams. Nature is full of omens, both of good or evil.
Philippine Dept. of Education Call for Supplementary Materials
May 3, 2018 at 2:35 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Conversations, Family, Filipino Writers, Publishers, Recommended, short story collections, Surprises, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Ateneo, Ginseng and Other Tales From Manila, happiness, memories
Self got an e-mail yesterday from alma mater Ateneo de Manila University. They’d been trying to reach her because the Philippine Department of Education wants to include her first collection of short stories, Ginseng and Other Tales From Manila, in schools. It will be part of the supplementary learning materials (SLM) for Grades 7 to 12.
You know what that means, self’s Philippine publisher said. That means, they will order copies. Lots of copies. And if the publisher runs out of copies, they’ll have to print some more.
That book, self’s first, was one of five finalists for the Philippines’ National Book Award. She forgets who won that year. She told her Dad about it, and of all the things he could have said, he said this: “Do you know how famous your Mom used to be? She was so famous, she performed in Carnegie Hall!” Self had no answer.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
In Honor of Independent Bookstore Day, Saturday, 28 April 2018: LUISA IGLORIA PICKS SOME GOOD ONES
April 25, 2018 at 11:06 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Links, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, short story collections, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: Asian American Writers, book lists, Carlos Bulosan, Luisa Igloria, Mayor of the Roses, memoir, Mendocino, nonfiction, novel, poetry, review
Luisa Igloria, Poet
Since self is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Mendocino Art Center, this week she’s been writing up a storm (also sending out her work) and adding to her reading list with regular drop-ins to one of the best bookstores in the world: Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino. Yelp gives them five stars!
She also asked two fabulous writers if they could share their list of Recommended Books with her, and she was so happy when they agreed. (Even if your local indie doesn’t carry the titles, they can always order them. In most cases, they’ll take an average of three or four days to get to the bookstore)
First up, Luisa Igloria
Luisa A. Igloria is the winner of the 2015 Resurgence Prize (UK), the world’s first major award for ecopoetry, selected by former UK poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, Alice Oswald, and Jo Shapcott. Her latest works include the collection The Buddha Wonders If She Is Having a Mid-Life Crisis (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2018), the chapbooks Haori (Tea & Tattered Pages Press, 2017), Check & Balance (Moria Press/Locofo Chaps, 2017), and Bright as Mirrors Left in the Grass (Kudzu House Press eChapbook selection for Spring 2015). Her collection Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser was selected by Mark Doty for the 2014 May Swenson Prize and published by Utah State University Press. Her other collections are: Night Willow (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2014), The Saints of Streets (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2013), Juan Luna’s Revolver (2009 Ernest Sandeen Prize, University of Notre Dame Press). She teaches on the faculty of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University, which she directed from 2009-2015. Her website is www.luisaigloria.com
Luisa’s Poetry Recommendations:
- Afterland, Mai Der Vang
- Calling a Wolf a Wolf, Kaveh Akbar
- Carpathia, Cecilia Woloch
- Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, Ross Gay
- Chord, Rick Barot
- Eye Level, Jenny Xie
- Glasshouses, Lighthouses, Tung-hui Hu
- Khaty Xiong, Poor Anima, Khaty Xiong
- Living Quarters, Adrienne Su
- Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong
- Some Say the Lark, Jennifer Chang
- Stereo. Island. Mosaic., Vincent Toro
- Registers of Illuminated Villages, Tarfia Faizullah
- The Second O of Sorrow, Sean Thomas Dougherty
- When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities, Chen Chen
- Whereas, Layli Long Soldier
Luisa’s Fiction Recommendations:
- A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
- America is Not the Heart, Elaine Castillo
- Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
- But For the Lovers, Wilfrido Nolledo
- Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
- Mayor of the Roses, Marianne Villanueva
- Pachinko, Min Jin Lee
- Smaller and Smaller Circles, F.H. Batacan
- The Last Mistress of Jose Rizal, Brian Roley
- The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen
- The Vagrants, Yiyun Li
- Too Much Happiness, Alice Munro
- To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
- Valiant Gentlemen, Sabina Murray
Luisa’s Nonfiction/Hybrid Recommendations:
- 100 Demons, Lynda Barry
- America is in the Heart, Carlos Bulosan
- Blind Spot, Teju Cole
- Echolalia in Script, Sam Roxas-Chua 姚
- Kilometer Zero, Wilfredo Pascual, Jr.
- On Imagination, Mary Ruefle
- Silver Road, Kazim Ali
- The Dark Interval, Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Kepel Fruit, Tung-hui Hu
- Too Much and Not the Mood, Durga Chew-Bose
- Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Self doesn’t know about you, but she’s itchy to get at more than a few of these books!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
PROLIFIC: Title of an Ilocano Grammar, Published 1627 in “The Most Noble and Ever Loyal City of Manila”
April 20, 2018 at 11:16 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Links, Philippine History)
Tags: Fridays, history, Manila, The Philippines, translation
Other PROLIFIC:
The book’s original title was
- Arte de la lengua iloca compuesto por el Padre fr. Francisco Lopez de la Orden de San Agustin (translation: Ilocano Grammar, compiled by Father Francisco Lopez, Augustinian Priest)
For its second edition, published 165 years later, the title had become
- Compendio y methodo de la suma de las reglas del arte del idioma ilocano, que a los principios del siglo pasado compuso el M.R.P. Fray Francisco Lopez del orden de S. Agustin, y a los ultimos de este siglo apunto otro religioso de la misma orden, el M.R.P. Predicador Fray Fernando Rey, Examinador synodal de este Obispado
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
AWAKENING That Has Nothing to Do With a Photo Challenge
April 14, 2018 at 11:41 pm (Artists and Writers, Family, Filipino Writers, plans, Relatives, Women Writers)
Tags: inspiration, memories, Saturday, The Philippines
Self thinks she’s going to change her spirit animal.
It used to be a turtle.
When she was growing up, her parents gave her, each birthday, a Steuben glass animal. She has a whole collection of Steuben glass turtles. Even, a Steuben glass toad.
She thinks she’d rather be a dolphin.
Dolphins are playful.
Dolphins are not poky-slow animals.
COME ON, SELF! YOU ARE NOT A TURTLE! YOU ARE NOT A TOAD!!!
YOU ARE A DOLPHIN!
Awakening.
Stay tuned.
Poetry Friday: Irene Suico Soriano
April 13, 2018 at 2:29 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Filipino Writers, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: Asian American Writers, causes, Fridays, poetry, The Philippines
Excerpt from Balitaan
Maricris Sioson died on September 19, 1991, allegedly of hepatitis. Her body bore head injuries and stab wounds . . . She worked as an entertainer in Japan.
Could it be in 40 floors of windows, rooms
beds and kitchen sinks is where
you once laughed saying this arm will pay for
Dodoy’s next semester at school
this leg for Christena’s girl scout uniform.
Arms scrubbing bathrooms all day
legs walking endless streets in the afternoon
to find Ama’s particular herb
ANGAT SA BUHAY, ANGAT SA BUHAY
Life will get better, you would say.
It will all happen . . .
I would add at once, Once we return!
and we would both laugh.
Irene Suico Soriano was born in Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. At eleven years of age, she and her mother immigrated to Los Angeles, California. Her childhood was spent soaking in the neighborhoods of pre-gentrified Downtown LA, East Hollywood, Rampart/Temple, Melrose, and the Wiltshire/Vermont corridor.
Balitaan is from the collection Primates from an Archipelago (Rabbits Fool Press, 2017)
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
