Vibal Foundation Launches Two Cecilia Brainard Books

The fol­low­ing announce­ment is cour­tesy of Vibal Foundation.

𝗩𝗶𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝟮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗖𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗮 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗱: 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙥 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙊𝙪𝙧 𝙆𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙄 𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙒𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧

𝗠𝗔𝗞𝗔𝗧𝗜 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗬, 𝗝𝗨𝗡𝗘 𝟳, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱: Vibal Foun­da­tion unveiled two new inspir­ing books edit­ed by award-win­ning author and edi­tor Cecil­ia Manguer­ra Brainard: 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘒𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 and 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳: 𝘌𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴.𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘒𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴 is a rich culi­nary mem­oir that blends per­son­al sto­ries, faith, and over 70 cher­ished recipes con­tributed by There­sians and their fam­i­lies. More than a cook­book, it reflects the lega­cy of shared meals, child­hood mem­o­ries, and the endur­ing spir­it of the grad­u­ates of St. Theresa’s Col­lege from its cam­pus­es in Mani­la, Cebu, and Que­zon City.

In her Intro­duc­tion, Brainard reflect­ed on her con­cept for the book which came after the 60th reunion of her high school class of 1964 at St. Theresa’s Col­lege-Mani­la: “The idea root­ed in my mind was that we should leave some­thing behind for our fam­i­lies, friends, and the next generations—a small some­thing of our­selves. The ‘cook­book project’ start­ed form­ing in my mind… Per­haps because I am pri­mar­i­ly a fic­tion writer, I con­sid­ered cre­at­ing a food book that tells a sto­ry. I thought of com­bin­ing recipes, anec­dotes, longer per­son­al essays, and the his­to­ry of our STC Foundress, Moth­er Marie Louise De Meester—a kind of mem­o­ra­bil­ia, thus the title: 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘒𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴: 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴. Here, then, is that food book.”

The book is under the Gas­tronomía Fil­ip­ina imprint of Vibal Foun­da­tion, which aims to show­case estab­lished and emerg­ing voic­es in Philip­pine food writ­ing, while reflect­ing the evolv­ing nar­ra­tive of Fil­ipino food. Its edi­tor-at-large, food schol­ar and book design­er Guiller­mo “Ige” Ramos, was also present dur­ing the launch to show his sup­port for Brainard.

𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀’ 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀

𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳: 𝘌𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘰 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 gath­ers deeply per­son­al essays from Fil­ipino and Fil­ipino Amer­i­can writ­ers, trac­ing their jour­neys into the lit­er­ary world. With 22 sto­ries of dis­cov­ery, strug­gle, and trans­for­ma­tion, the col­lec­tion offers insight into the lives behind the words, mak­ing it an essen­tial read for aspir­ing writ­ers and lovers of literature.

Among its con­trib­u­tors are award-win­ning and esteemed writ­ers: Mer­lie Alu­nan, Ian Ros­ales Caso­cot, Kris­t­ian Sendon Cordero, Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Jose “Butch” Dal­isay Jr., Allan Derain, Yvette Fer­nan­dez, Car­o­line Hau, the late Tony Perez, John Iremil Teodoro, John Jack Wigley, and Hope Saban­pan-Yu. The book is part of the World Non­fic­tions imprint of Vibal Foun­da­tion, curat­ed by best-sell­ing author Char­lie Samuya Ver­ic from the Ate­neo de Mani­la Uni­ver­si­ty. He refers to World Non­fic­tions as an imprint “ded­i­cat­ed to illu­mi­nat­ing the Fil­ipino expe­ri­ence, the Asian region, and the wider world through bold, time­ly, and orig­i­nal works.”

The twin launch includ­ed book talks led by Brainard, who lat­er signed copies of her books. An award-win­ning author and edi­tor of over 22 books, she has writ­ten three nov­els: When the Rain­bow God­dess Wept (1999, 2019), Mag­dale­na (2011, 2016), and The News­pa­per Wid­ow (2017, 2021). Her Select­ed Short Sto­ries (2021) won the Nation­al Artist Cir­i­lo F. Bautista Prize for Best Book of Short Fic­tion in Eng­lish at the 40th Nation­al Book Awards, and Grow­ing Up Fil­ipino 3: New Sto­ries for Young Adults (2022) was a final­ist for Best Anthol­o­gy in Eng­lish at the 41st Nation­al Book Award. Her work has been trans­lat­ed into sev­er­al lan­guages, includ­ing Turk­ish, Finnish, Greek, and Japanese.

Brainard has received an Out­stand­ing Indi­vid­ual Award from her birth­place Cebu City, a Cal­i­for­nia Arts Coun­cil Fel­low­ship, a Brody Arts Fund grant, and sev­er­al trav­el grants from the US Embassy, among others.

She has taught at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les (UCLA), the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia (USC), Cal­i­for­nia State Sum­mer School for the Arts, and the Writ­ers’ Pro­gram at UCLA Exten­sion. She has served as an exec­u­tive board mem­ber and offi­cer of Poets, Essay­ists, and Nov­el­ists (PEN), Pacif­ic Asian Amer­i­can Women Writ­ers West (PAAWWW), Arts and Let­ters at Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty, Los Ange­les, and Philip­pine Amer­i­can Women Writ­ers and Artists (PAWWA). She also runs a small press, Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House (PALH), which pub­lish­es select Fil­ipino and Fil­ipino Amer­i­can books.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗩𝗶𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Found­ed in 2007 as the cor­po­rate phil­an­thropy arm of Vibal Group Inc., Vibal Foundation’s advo­ca­cy is to nur­ture Fil­ipino read­ers and help them access Philip­pine cul­ture and her­itage through diverse chan­nels such as lit­er­a­cy pro­grams, open knowl­edge web­sites, print­ed books, and most recent­ly, dig­i­tal media plat­forms. The Foundation’s cat­a­log engages Fil­ipinos in more intel­lec­tu­al dis­cus­sions, authored by dis­tin­guished writ­ers and experts who are pas­sion­ate about Fil­ipino cul­ture and heritage.

Vibal’s books are avail­able on Shopee, Laza­da, Vibal’s online shop­ping por­tal, and at the book­stores of Fine Philip­pine Books at Lucky Chi­na­town Mall, Rama­da Hotel in Binon­do, and Casa Valle­jo in Baguio, with more stores set to open in the com­ing months.

 

Tags — Philip­pine authors, Fil­ipino sto­ries, Fil­ipino writ­ers, Philip­pine lit­er­a­ture, Philip­pine cook­book, #new­book