Cecilia Brainard Books Highlighted for Frankfurt Book Fair — Short List

NOTE: Cel­e­brat­ing Trans­la­tions of  Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard’s Fic­tion, Oct 17 FBM25

Short List Cecil­ia Brainard Books High­light­ed for Frank­furt Book Fair

CECILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD

Fic­tion Writer-Editor-Publisher
https://ceciliabrainard.com
Cbrainard@gmail.com; cbrainard@aol.com or
con­tact her agent, Sen­ja Pozar at lba.ljubljana@gmail.com

BIO:
Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard is the author and edi­tor of over a 20 books. Her work has been wide­ly anthol­o­gized and has been trans­lat­ed into Turk­ish and Finnish. Cecil­ia also edits antholo­gies and runs a small press, PALH (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House) which pub­lish­es fine Fil­ipino and Fil­Am books, such as Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino, Fic­tion by Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, and more.

For her books and lit­er­ary work, she has been award­ed a 40^th Nation­al Book Award, an Out­stand­ing Indi­vid­ual Award from Cebu, a Cal­i­for­nia Arts Coun­cil Fel­low­ship, a Brody Arts Fund Fel­low­ship, sev­er­al trav­el grants from the US Embassy, an Amaz­ing Alum­ni Achiever’s Award from Mary­knoll Col­lege, a Spe­cial recog­ni­tion Award from the Los Ange­les (Cal­i­for­nia) Board of Edu­ca­tion, and more.

She has taught at the Writ­ers Pro­gram at UCLA Exten­sion, the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, and UCLA. She gives talks, lec­tures, and lit­er­ary read­ings at uni­ver­si­ties and arts/literary cen­ters such as the UP Cebu, Cebuano Stud­ies Cen­ter, Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas, Los Ange­les Library, PEN, Paris Lit­up, and many more.

The Cebuano Stud­ies Cen­ter and the Nation­al Com­mis­sion for Arts and Cul­ture pro­duced a doc­u­men­tary video enti­tled: The Cebua­na in the World: Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard Writ­ing Out of Cebu. Her books have been the sub­ject of dis­ser­ta­tions and aca­d­e­m­ic papers.

She has served as the Exec­u­tive Board mem­ber of PEN USA West, and she rep­re­sent­ed PEN in inter­na­tion­al meet­ings in Barcelona and San­ti­a­go de Com­postela. She also served as an offi­cer in lit­er­ary arts groups such as the Mid­night Spe­cial Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, Pacif­ic Asian Amer­i­can Women Writ­ers West, Philip­pine Amer­i­can Women Writ­ers and Arts, and the Arts & Let­ters at the Cal State Uni­ver­si­ty in LA.

SHORT STORY COLLECTION

SELECTED SHORT STORIES BY CECILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD
Win­ner 40^th Nation­al Book Award and Cir­i­lo Bautista Prize
Final­ist Gin­tong Aklat Award

Brainard’s award win­ning Select­ed Short Sto­ries col­lects 39 of her strongest short sto­ries, which are grouped into three parts, accord­ing to set­ting: sto­ries set in Ubec, Philip­pines; in Mani­la and oth­er parts of the Philip­pines, and sto­ries set in the US and oth­er parts of the world.

“Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard’s short sto­ries cov­er not just the his­to­ry of the Philip­pines – Span­ish and Amer­i­can colo­nial rule, the bloody Mar­cos era, the high price of fight­ing for polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic free­dom – but also the deeply mov­ing hes­i­ta­tions and com­plex­i­ties of the human heart: the loves and long­ings and loss­es that shape and haunt a life, the sen­su­al­i­ty and desires that rip apart the fab­ric of social life, the intri­ca­cies of girl­hood and female friend­ship, the con­fronta­tion of cul­tures, the lone­li­ness and courage of Fil­ipino-Amer­i­cans and oth­ers who have left their home­lands and the idea of home. Beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten, mas­ter­ful­ly craft­ed, these sto­ries are at once heart-break­ing, enter­tain­ing, and pro­found­ly humane — very dif­fi­cult to put down, impos­si­ble to for­get. ” ~ Reine Arcache Melvin, Novelist

Author: Cecil­ia Manguer­rra Brainard
ISBN: 978–971-506‑8710 (Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House)
ISBN: 978–1‑954716–01‑9 (PALH)
Mace­don­ian, Por­tuguese rights have sold.

NOVEL

THE NEWSPAPER WIDOW
A lit­er­ary mys­tery set in the Philip­pines in 1909
Final­ist for the 37^th Nation­al Book Award
Short­list­ed for the Inau­gur­al Cir­i­lo F. Bautista Prize

When a mur­dered priest is dis­cov­ered in a creek, the son of Ines is picked up as a sus­pect and jailed. Ines, new­ly-wid­owed and is still griev­ing, and who is also try­ing to keep his news­pa­per busi­ness afloat, decides she has to find the real mur­der­er so her son will be freed. She and her friend a French seam­stress set out to inves­ti­gate the crime.

“What fol­lows is part detec­tive sto­ry and part his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, set in the Philip­pines sev­en years after the con­clu­sion of the Philip­pine-Amer­i­can War (1899–1902) that cement­ed U.S. occu­pa­tion of the islands. The mys­tery ele­ments are com­pe­tent­ly plot­ted, and the char­ac­ters appeal­ing, and there’s a charm­ing long-dis­tance romance, with a hint of anoth­er yet to come. The book’s sig­nal virtue, though, is its big­heart­ed look at Fil­ipino cul­ture and soci­ety in 1909. ~ David Keymer, Library Jour­nal

Author: Cecil­ia Manguer­rra Brainard
ISBN: 978–971-506–811‑6 (Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House)
ISBN: 078–1‑053716–14‑9 (PALH)
Ara­bic, Mace­don­ian, Sloven­ian, Ser­bian rights have sold.

NOVEL

MAGDALENA
Erot­ic and Trag­ic nov­el writ­ten in the frag­men­tary style

When the young woman Jua­na becomes preg­nant, she decides to tell the trag­ic love sto­ry of her moth­er who died dur­ing child­birth, and her Amer­i­can father who is a pris­on­er of war in Viet­nam. But soon, her grand­moth­er and oth­er women in her fam­i­ly come to her in dreams and thoughts, demand­ing to have their sto­ries writ­ten, to have their secrets revealed.

“Expert­ly writ­ten by Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard … Mag­dale­na is set in the chaot­ic back­drop of twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry East Asia. A roman­tic, pow­er­ful tale of three gen­er­a­tions of Fil­ipino women, writ­ten with a close eye on the ter­rors of war and the Japan­ese inva­sion of the Philip­pines dur­ing World War II, Mag­dale­na is an intense, involv­ing, high­ly rec­om­mend­ed saga that doc­u­ments author Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard as a gift­ed author with a mas­tery of sto­ry­telling that will keep the reader’s total atten­tion and engage­ment from first page to last!” ~ Mid­west Review

Author: Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard

ISBN: 978–971-506–801‑7 (Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House)
ISBN: 978–1‑953716–11‑8 (PALH)
Greek, Ara­bic, Mace­don­ian, Ser­bian rights have sold.

NOVEL

WHEN THE RAINBOW GODDESS WEPT
A Clas­sic in Pacif­ic War and Philip­pine Literatures

When World War II breaks out in the Philip­pines, the nine-year old girl Yvonne has to leave her city home with her par­ents to hide in the moun­tains of Min­danao. There she becomes a wit­ness to wartime hor­rors. Her father is an Amer­i­can-trained engi­neer who is part of the guer­ril­la move­ment. Her moth­er, who is used to com­fort and city-life, is total­ly unfit for harsh jungle/mountain life. Liv­ing under harsh con­di­tions, Yvonne’s only com­fort are the ancient Philip­pine epics that the fam­i­ly cook tells her. Will this sus­tain her for the dura­tion of this bloody and hor­rif­ic war?

“Cecil­ia Brainard’s debut nov­el is the tear­ful, sel­dom-told sto­ry of the Japan­ese inva­sion of the Philip­pines dur­ing World War II as seen through the eyes of a young Fil­ipino girl. The many hard­ships that 9‑year-old Yvonne Macaraig and her fam­i­ly are faced with teach her the val­ue of hope and endurance…Brainard’s won­der­ful nov­el shows how war brings out the best and the worst in peo­ple as it describes both the atroc­i­ties and the hero­ics that befall her char­ac­ters. The novel’s theme, the vast cost of war on the human spir­it is illus­trat­ed well by Yvonne’s trag­ic loss of inno­cence. In the words of her grand­fa­ther, Lolo Peping: “Before man sinned, he was inno­cent. Man’s orig­i­nal sin wasn’t eat­ing the for­bid­den fruit; it was Cain’s mur­der of his broth­er. ~ Asso­ci­at­ed Press

Author: Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard
ISBN: 978–0‑472–08637‑5 9 (Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan Press – Ann Arbor)
ISBN: 978–971-506–842‑0 (Uni­ver­si­ty of San­to Tomas Pub­lish­ing House)

Azer­bai­jan, Ara­bic, Mace­don­ian, Por­tuguese, Japan­ese rights have sold.

Tags:
#2024FrankfurtBookFair  #Frank­furt Burkmessse #Philip­pinelit­er­a­ture #Fil­ipino­lit­er­a­ture #trans­la­tions