(Photo credits: Dulaang UP) Dulaang UP’s twin bill of Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero’s Kalahating Oras sa Kumbento and Rolando Tinio’s May Katwiran ang Katwiran in Para Kay Tony is a sparse, student-led production that attempts to go beyond an act of remembrance, into the claiming of identity. A Legacy of 48 Years While DUP is not… Read More Para Kay Tony: A Twin Bill On Remembrance and Identity
“For the world of tales is the land of legend and dream, even if the characters move and speak in the here and now. And sometimes, it seems to me that only sorcery and enchantment can capture the strangeness of ‘real life.’” ~ Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo It took reading this World Fantasy Award winning book… Read More MAPPING NEW STARS: The Theory and Practice of Filipino Speculative Fiction
They say those who laugh hardest are those who have tasted more of life’s bitterness. It’s as if, having known shadow, they revel in the light all the more. The same could be said for the author of “Even Ducks Get Liver Cancer.” Wilfredo Liangco is an oncologist (in layman’s terms, a cancer doctor), one… Read More Even Ducks Get Liver Cancer: Stories as Medicine for the Soul
“Ah, but we wanted to change the world, really, foolhardidly tried to make it better… but you left, and are returned to us, barbaric and helpless in your turn.” Exploding Galaxies’ third publication may be their slimmest yet, but perhaps “The Firewalkers” by Erwin E. Castillo is the most impactful. Compared to its more hefty… Read More The Firewalkers: Here Be Carnivorous Monsters
Few books have forewords that embrace its reader in an emotional chokehold, already sniffing through a mist of tears. This is such a book. Veteran journalist Atom Araullo introduces his powerful collection of eight articles and accompanying photos as “stories that don’t shout, but linger.” These are long-term issues from all over the Philippines and… Read More A View From The Ground: An Intimate Look at Filipino Reality
Fil-Am author Elaine Castillo’s second novel is so woke, this reader had to read every other sentence twice to fully parse out the pointed inequalities marking even the most seemingly innocent exchanges. To Castillo, the pen is a sword, the page a battlefield in a story that is part-romance, part social critique with a dash… Read More Moderation: A Cynical Love Story
THE VANISHED (the English translation of author Chuckberry Pascual’s “Ang Nawawala”) has introduced this reader to one of the most unforgettable characters to ever grace the page. When things keep getting lost in a particular barangay, there’s only one person to call. Our hero/ine Bree solves seven capers in these tragicomic short stories (alternatively seen… Read More The Vanished: Mystery Meets Social Criticism
THE SECRET LIVES OF OFWs has an irresistible premise. What if the Filipino migrant worker is actually a mythological creature, with enough supernatural power to take revenge against abusive foreigners? Events creative (and former OFW) Jet Tagasa’s first book is a collection of eight horror stories, each featuring a kababayan who happens to be more… Read More The Secret Lives of OFWs: Here Be Monsters
Solidaridad has been a special part of my life in Manila for more than two decades. Its presence is very unassuming and I was witness to all the changes to the establishments around it, but the bookstore stayed the same. I’m proud to have brought my friends there, and also former foreign co-workers who wanted… Read More Solidaridad: A Soliloquy
What author doesn’t dream of writing a book that inspires a movie, now available to stream on Netflix? F.H. Batacan’s SMALLER AND SMALLER CIRCLES (written 26 years ago) not only pioneered a genre (crime fiction) and won the Palanca and the National Book Award, but also got picked up by Soho Press for international publication.… Read More Rage Against the Machine: F.H. Batacan Shows How One Can Merge Anger with Grace
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