Cecilia Brainard’s Popular Books

Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard is the author and edi­tor of over twen­ty books. 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.

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, and Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino II: More 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.