Announcing

FORTHCOMING IN JANUARY 2009
Available for pre-ordering

2009 Winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry

JUAN LUNA’S REVOLVER

By Luisa Igloria

From the publisher’s website:

The poems in Juan Luna’ s Revolver both address history and attempt to transcend it through their exploration of the complexity of diaspora. Attending to the legacy of colonial and postcolonial encounters, Luisa A. Igloria has crafted poems that create links of sympathetic human understanding, even as they revisit difficult histories and pose necessary questions about place, power, displacement, nostalgia, beauty, and human resilience in conditions of alienation and duress.

Igloria traces journeys made by Filipinos in the global diaspora that began since the encounter with European and American colonial power. Her poems allude to historical figures such as the Filipino painter Juan Luna and the novelist and national hero José Rizal, as well as the eleven hundred indigenous Filipinos brought to serve as live exhibits in the 1904 Missouri World’s Fair. The image of the revolver fired by Juan Luna reverberates throughout the collection, raising to high relief how separation and exile have shaped concepts of identity, nationality, and possibility.

Suffused with gorgeous imagery and nuanced emotion, Igloria’s poetry achieves an intimacy fostered by gem-like phrases set within a politically-charged context speaking both to the personal and the collective.

Luisa A. Igloria is an associate professor in the MFA creative writing program at Old Dominion University. The winner of numerous national and international creative writing awards, she is the author of nine books.

Coming Soon from Cheng & Tsui: An Anthology of the New Asia-Pacific

Cheng & Tsui, a Boston-based independent publisher whose motto is “Bringing Asia to the World,” has a number of interesting books in their catalogue, including this one, which self reviewed for The Multicultural Review last year:

Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology
Translated by Hiroaki Sato

Catalogue description: Japanese Women Poets is an unrivaled English-language collection that presents samples from more than 100 female Japanese poets, arranged chronologically, and includes all major verse forms: choka, tanka, haikai, kanshi (verse written in Chinese), and free verse. Poems engage traditional themes such as seasonal changes and love, and more modern topics such as the devastations of war, conflicts between child-rearing and work, and the refugee experience. For those unfamiliar with Japanese language, this volume includes explanations of terms and references, as well as a glossary of poetic terms, chronology, and bibliography. Students and lovers of poetry and Japanese culture will treasure this magnificent anthology.

Coming soon is Another Kind of Paradise: Short Stories from the New Asia-Pacific
Edited by Trevor Carolan (Linh Dinh, self are among the contributors)

Catalogue description: Well-crafted stories can provide a glimpse into the lives of characters who are relevant to all times—whether they hail from sweltering Rangoon, uber-urban Tokyo, or the provinces of South Korea. This collection of thought-provoking stories from the cutting edge of contemporary fiction is perfect for Asian literature courses or for anyone interested in literature in translation, Asian society amid the currents of globalization, or the latest voices from the Asia-Pacific world. This wide-ranging anthology includes twenty-one contemporary short stories in English from writers at the top of their craft in Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and all over the continent. The volume includes a brief introduction to each author’s works and life, as well as a preface and bibliography.

Philippine Coral Reef Exhibit To Open in San Francisco

An exhibit on the Philippine Coral Reefs will be one of the permanent exhibits on display when the California Academy of Sciences re-opens in Golden Gate Park on September 27.

The following is a quote from the California Academy of Sciences Press Release:

Often called rainforests of the sea, coral reefs are the most diverse aquatic ecosystems on the planet. They are also among the most endangered – up to 70% of the world’s tropical coral reefs may disappear within the next 15 years due to the impacts of global warming and other environmental stresses. Worldwide, over 25% have already been destroyed or badly damaged. These ecosystems are important to save, not only because of the biodiversity they contain, but because they provide protection for coastal communities against tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons. Additionally, hundreds of millions of people depend on coral reefs for their livelihood or for food. Despite their global importance, most people on the planet have never seen a living reef. When the new California Academy of Sciences opens in 2008, over a million visitors a year will be able to experience the splendor of a living Philippine coral reef and learn what they can do to help save coral reefs around the world.

The Academy chose to feature a Philippine coral reef because the reef systems in the Philippines are among the most diverse in the world. The new tank will hold a variety of delicate soft and hard corals, as well as sharks, rays, and more than 2,000 colorful reef fishes. All of the animals will be captive bred, or will come from sustainable wild sources, highlighting the importance of in-country research and conservation programs.

For more information, visit http://www.pusod.org/reef

First Week of February: Home

Self knows she should be getting dressed. Even though she slept at 4 am and awoke at 6:30 (!!@@)

Self knows she should be doing something other than what she is doing at this very moment.

It isn’t raining. Therefore, self should be working in the garden, especially since she bought two plants from Wegman’s this week: an Aucuba, and a Crimson Helleborus. And self dragged a huge bag of organic planting mix that was almost as tall as herself from the trunk of her car to the backyard; it nearly killed her to do so.

Things self would like to do today:

Get dressed.

 

Garden.

 

Buy

New York Times

.

 

Write. Write. Write.

In the meantime, here are a few snippets of things that have surfaced in self’s life today, for whatever reason:

Received in the mail: an invitation from ex-Assumption classmate Lucy, now a doctor in Houston. Bob is Lucy’s husband. Invitation reads:

You’re invited to celebrate Bob’s retirement

Saturday, February 23, 2008

From 6:30 pm – Midnight.
at
The Marriott Waterway, 1601 Robbins Drive, Woodlands, TX

Please join us for dinner, dancing, and FUN!
Cocktail attire.
Instead of a gift, please bring a monetary donation for the Houston Food Bank.

Next, there’s a menu which hubby brought home with him from Manila. His only Saturday in the city: he gave up a trip to the beach to visit the Salcedo Farmers Market because self begged him to pick up talangka and bagoong, which they sell there. And he recognized the name of one of the caterers who has a stall there: Ed Quimson. And the menu he brought back from Ed’s stall is this:

Sausages
Chorizo Bilbao * Chicken and Chunky Apple * Chicken and Pesto * Schublig and Cheese * Chili and Garlic * Smoked Kielbasa * Spanish Longanisa * Hungarian and Cheese * English Pork

Pasta Sauces
Puttanesca * Carbonara * Bolognese * Nona Consuelo

Oils
Sundried Tomato, Pepperoncino & Basil * Anchovies, Garlic & Cream * Rosemary & Caperberries * Chili & Garlic

Cooked Food
Bacalao ala Vizcaina * Callos al Estilo “Morado”

Marinades
Iberian Chicken Mix * Universal Sauce * Guava Jelly and Coffee

Paté
Sardine Paté * Chicken Liver Paté

Ranch Style Corned Beef

Milk Chocolate Fondue

Which reminds self that tonight, she’s decided to broil pork baby back ribs. She marinated them last night in a bottle of Paul Prudhomme’s steak mix, which self brought back from New Orleans (in 2000 yet, self sincerely hopes she and hubby don’t wind up with a case of food poisoning!)

Stay tuned, dear blog readers, stay tuned.