• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

author and editor

  • Home
  • About
    • Interviews
    • Sources
  • Books
  • Other Books
  • Media
    • Blog
    • Travels with Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
    • Creative Writing Tips by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
  • Contact

About the Author

divider

Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard was born after World War II in Cebu, Philip­pines, the fourth sur­viv­ing child of Mar­i­ano Flo­res Manguer­ra and Con­cep­cion Cuen­co Manguer­ra. Her father, a civ­il engi­neer, came from Sta. Rosa, Lagu­na. Her moth­er belonged to a polit­i­cal fam­i­ly of Cebu and was a suc­cess­ful busi­ness woman and realtor.

Cecil­ia grew up in the port city of Cebu in Cen­tral Philip­pines, a place that retains its Span­ish-Colo­nial influ­ences, inspir­ing Cecil­ia to cre­ate her myth­i­cal set­ting called “Ubec” which echoes the San­to Niño Church, tri­an­gu­lar Span­ish fort, and old build­ings and streets of the real Cebu. Her three nov­els — When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept, Mag­dale­na, and The News­pa­per Wid­ow are set (even par­tial­ly) in Ubec. Ubec also appears in her three short sto­ry col­lec­tions — Woman in Horns and Oth­er Sto­ries, Aca­pul­co at Sun­set and Oth­er Sto­ries, and Vigan and Oth­er Sto­ries.

She attend­ed St. Theresa’s Col­lege in Cebu and in Mani­la and she earned her BA in Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Arts from Mary­knoll Col­lege. She migrat­ed to the Unit­ed States to do grad­u­ate work in Film Mak­ing at UCLA. She lat­er turned to writ­ing which suits her indi­vid­u­al­is­tic per­son­al­i­ty better.

Beginning Writing

divider

It was her hus­band, a for­mer Peace Corps Vol­un­teer to Leyte (Lau­ren R. Brainard) who, upon not­ing that Cecil­ia wrote in her jour­nal every night, gift­ed her with a then-inno­v­a­tive elec­tric type­writer. Encour­aged to take her writ­ing more seri­ous­ly, Cecil­ia arranged to write a bi-month­ly col­umn in Philip­pine Amer­i­can News, per­son­al essays, which she lat­er com­piled in a book called Philip­pine Woman in Amer­i­ca. She also enrolled in cre­ative writ­ing class­es at the Writ­ers’ Pro­gram at UCLA Exten­sion. While tak­ing care of her fam­i­ly (hus­band and three sons) Cecil­ia pur­sued her writ­ing and start­ed to get her short sto­ries published.

It was Fil­ipino Amer­i­can writer Bien­venido N. San­tos who intro­duced her to the pub­lish­er, Mrs. Glo­ria Rodriguez, who went on to pub­lish sev­er­al of Cecilia’s books: col­lec­tion of short sto­ries (Woman with Horns and Oth­er Sto­ries), first nov­el (Song of Yvonne), col­lec­tion of essays (Philip­pine Woman in Amer­i­ca), and her first edit­ed col­lec­tion of short sto­ries (Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca.)

Cecilia’s Novels

divider

Song of Yvonne, which is a com­ing of age sto­ry of a young girl named Yvonne dur­ing World War II, was lat­er pub­lished by E.P. Dutton/Penguin of New York under the title When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept in hard cov­er and soft cov­er edi­tions (1994, 1995). In 1999, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan Press picked up When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept, and it remains in print. A Turk­ish edi­tion of this nov­el was also pub­lished— Gokkusa­gi Tan­ri­c­asi Aglad­i­gun­da — by Bilge Kul­tur Sanat and trans­lat­ed by Fusun Talay in 2001.

Her sec­ond nov­el, Mag­dale­na, writ­ten in the frag­ment­ed style, is about three Fil­ipino women whose lives have been affect­ed by three wars in the Philip­pines – Philip­pine-Amer­i­can War, World War II, and the Viet­nam War. Susan Bright, poet and pub­lish­er of Plain View Press in Texas fell in love with it and pub­lished it in 2002. A favorite among fem­i­nists, poets, and aca­d­e­mics, Mag­dale­na was reprint­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House in the Philip­pines in 2016.

In 2017, her third nov­el, The News­pa­per Wid­ow, was pub­lished by Jack Wigley of the Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House. This lit­er­ary mys­tery was inspired by Cecilia’s great-grand­moth­er who was report­ed­ly the first woman pub­lish­er of the Philip­pines. The nov­el was short­list­ed in the Cir­i­lo Bautista Prize for the Nov­el and the 37th Nation­al Book Awards of the Philippines.

Other Literary Work

divider

Respond­ing to the needs of her Fil­ipino and Fil­ipino Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties, Cecil­ia edit­ed fic­tion and non­fic­tion col­lec­tions, includ­ing Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, Con­tem­po­rary Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino: Sto­ries for Young Adults, Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino II: More Sto­ries for Young Adults and Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino 3: New Sto­ries for Young Adults

Cecil­ia has taught at the Writ­ers’ Pro­gram at UCLA Exten­sion, UCLA, USC, and the Cal­i­for­nia State Sum­mer School for the Arts (CSSSA). She con­tin­ues to lec­ture and per­form in lit­er­ary arts venues such as Shake­speare and Com­pa­ny in Paris, Cul­ture Rapi­de in Paris, Beyond Baroque, PEN, Com­ing Togeth­er in Skok­ie Illi­nois, Sec­ond Lit­er­ary Sym­po­sium in Jack­son Ten­nessee, Fil­ipino Amer­i­can Inter­na­tion­al Book Fes­ti­vals, Cebu Lit­er­ary Fes­ti­vals, and many Philip­pine and US universities.

As a for­mer Exec­u­tive Board Mem­ber of the writ­ers’ group PEN, she rep­re­sent­ed PEN USA West in Inter­na­tion­al meet­ings in Barcelona and San­ti­a­go de Com­postela. She served as an offi­cer in such groups as the Mid­night Spe­cial Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, PAAWWW (Pacif­ic Asian Amer­i­can Women Writ­ers West), and the Arts & Let­ters at the Cal State Uni­ver­si­ty, LA.

Cecil­ia co-found­ed PAWWA (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Women Writ­ers and Artists) a sup­port group that received fund­ing by the Cal­i­for­nia Arts Coun­cil. She found­ed and runs PALH (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House) a small pub­lish­ing house of fine Philip­pine Amer­i­can books. She is an active mem­ber of the Philip­pine and Philip­pine Amer­i­can lit­er­ary communities.

Awards

For her work, Cecil­ia has received many awards, includ­ing a Cal­i­for­nia Arts Coun­cil Fel­low­ship, a Brody Arts Fund Fel­low­ship, an Out­stand­ing Indi­vid­ual Award from Cebu, an Amaz­ing Alu­mu­ni Achiever’s Award from Mary­knoll Col­lege, sev­er­al trav­el grants from the USIS, a City of Los Ange­les Cul­tur­al Grant, a Spe­cial Recog­ni­tion Award from the Los Ange­les Board of Edu­ca­tion for her work deal­ing with Asian Amer­i­can youths, and many more.

Travels

She con­tin­ues her lit­er­ary work and trav­els reg­u­lar­ly to the Philip­pines and oth­er parts of the world when she can.

Say Hello

Cecil­ia Brainard
c/o PALH
PO Box 5099
San­ta Mon­i­ca, CA 90409
USA

Let’s Get Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Recently on the Blog

  • Carlos Bulosan Book Club Launches Growing Up Filipino 3
  • My Cat Che Jumping Over the Moon, Pastel by Cecilia Brainard
  • Cecilia Flying Pastel Art by Cecilia Brainard

Copyright © CECILIA BRAINARD 2023 · DESIGNED BY FANCY GIRL DESIGNS