Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America

Edit­ed by Cecil­ia Brainard
PALH 2021, 275 pages
ISBN 9781953716095 — BOOKSHOP ORDER

EBOOK — Kin­dle, Barnes&Noble, Rakuten Kogo, Apple Books, Scribd, Toli­no, Over­Drive, Bib­lio­the­ca, Baker& Tay­lor, Vivlio, Bor­row Box.

 

Personal yet Global

This is a 2021 US Edi­tion of Con­tem­po­rary Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, which was first pub­lished in the Philip­pines by Anvil in 1998.

Con­tem­po­rary Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca col­lects 26 sto­ries by emerg­ing as well as estab­lished Fil­ipino writ­ers liv­ing in Amer­i­ca, includ­ing F. Delor Ange­les, Melis­sa P. Aran­za­mendez, Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard, Luis Cabalquin­to, Lin­da Ty-Casper, Lee Respi­cio Colom­by, Jay Ruben Dayrit, Alma Jill Dizon, Lig­aya Vic­to­rio Fru­to, N.V.M. Gon­za­lez, Vince Gotera, Mila Faraon Heubeck, Eulalio Yer­ro Ibar­ra, Pauli­no Lim, Jr., Veron­i­ca Montes, Oscar Penaran­da, Edgar Poma, Mar V. Puatu, Nadine Sar­real, Greg Sar­ris, John L. Sil­va, Eileen Tabios, Lil­ia V. Vil­lanue­va, Mar­i­anne Vil­lanue­va, Fati­ma Lim-Wilson.

This book, plus oth­ers Cecil­ia Brainard edit­ed (includ­ing Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino I and II) are valu­able sources for many teach­ers. To quote Harold Augen­braum, “Brainard has done a fine job bring­ing many lit­tle-known writ­ers – and the edgi­ness of Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca – to the fore.”

Praise

“By pulling these per­son­al, fic­tion­al quests togeth­er, the read­er indeed comes away with a var­ied por­trait of Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, not the expres­sion of dark causal­i­ty present in the ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions of writ­ers, such as Bulosan and San­tos — those fan­tas­tic con­jurors of Fil­ipino Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture — but of peo­ple cau­tious­ly set­tling into what they hope will be a com­fort­able posi­tion … So many of these sto­ries con­vey lone­li­ness, dis­con­nect­ed­ness, and an inabil­i­ty to form last­ing attach­ments … This col­lec­tion abounds with such ten­sion … Brainard has done a fine job of bring­ing many lit­tle-known writ­ers – and the edgi­ness of Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca – to the fore. ” (Harold Augen­braum for Manoa)

“Those of us who read fic­tion … will enjoy this mar­velous anthol­o­gy of con­tem­po­rary sto­ries explor­ing the expe­ri­ence of being not only Fil­ipino, not only Amer­i­can, not only Fil­ipino Amer­i­can, but a tru­ly glob­al human being liv­ing in an unmis­tak­ably glob­al com­mu­ni­ty.” (Isagani R. Cruz, Critic-at-Large)

Excerpt

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2013/07/fiction-flip-gothic-by-cecilia.html

Book Review

Harold Augen­braum for Manoa, Vol. 13, No. 1, Sum­mer 2001