From Ben Pimentel: On Migration Stories

Just stumbled into this amazing video, an overview of the the Depression and the roles that writers such as John Steinbeck and Carlos Bulosan played. The segment on Bulosan notes that he was critical of writers such as Steinbeck and Dos Pasos apparently they were not as involved as he was in the labor struggles of his time.

http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1748

Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.: Anthology

Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.: Anthology: "Field of Mirrors: An Anthology of Philippine American Writers, edited by Edwin A. Lozada and published by PAWA, Inc. ISBN: 9780976331636[ 43..."

Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.: 03/23/2011: Playwright Jeannie Barroga @ Evergreen...

Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.: 03/23/2011: Playwright Jeannie Barroga @ Evergreen...: "EVC Authors Series presents JEANNIE BARROGA March 23, 2011 12:30-1:30 pm, Montgomery Hall (Student Center 127) Evergreen Valley College ..."

Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.: Review: Jon Pineda's SLEEP IN ME

Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.: Review: Jon Pineda's SLEEP IN ME: "From Brevity Book Reviews: Reviewed by Ira Sukrungruang What is there to think about when you are boy and the world is large and you fee..."

Best Regards from Aileen Ibardaloza-Cassinetto

Hi everyone

I'm one of the founding members of World Book Night (http://www.worldbooknight.org/), a book give-away project that celebrates the power of reading and writing. The project was launched in Trafalgar Square last week, and readers included Alan Bennett, John le Carre, Margaret Atwood, Tracy Chevalier and many others. Quoting C.S.Lewis, WBN founder Jamie Byng said, "We read to know we are not alone"; author Alan Bennett recalled how, being poor, his only entertainment as a child came from the local library. The same library, and others like it, are now in danger of being closed down due to lack of funding.

I came home to San Francisco with 48 copies of the 1 million books especially printed for World Book Night. I chose Toni Morrison's Beloved and pledged to distribute it to libraries in the Philippines, specifically a municipality in an island province where there is no library and where my husband and I hope to start a Reading Room at least.

I have extra copies of Beloved to give away to the first 10 people to email (pls PM me your mailing address, as well); to the authors out there, if you are so inclined, I'd appreciate it if you can also send me a copy of your book and I'll include it with the books I'm bringing to the Philippines.

Thank you.

Best
Aileen Ibardaloza-Cassinetto

Review of Barbara Jane Reyes's book of poems, "Diwata."

 I share this new review of Diwata, which was posted at Lantern Review: 

http://lanternreview.com/blog/2010/12/20/review-barbara-jane-reyes-diwata/

In Poeta in San Francisco, Barbara Jane Reyes’ previous book, diwata was someone “elders say” had once “walked on earth” before the “the nailed god came” (30). These are the traces and rumors from which the titular Diwata of her latest book is resurrected. Then, like slippery oral art, like slips of the tongue, creation stories about men, women, and diwata—a god or spirit in Philippine mythology—are made up and told again and again. The poems in Diwata draw also on, and retell, Judeo-Christian creation narratives, introduced and enforced in the Philippines by the Spanish colonial regime. These retellings of myths and folk tales become a modality through which ahistory is rendered into history, history itself is investigated, and variations of diwatas, their quarries, and their hunters are revealed as inhabiting multiple narrative, linguistic, and cultural sites.

http://lanternreview.com/blog/2010/12/20/review-barbara-jane-reyes-diwata/


To our Filipino American authors out there.  Please send me a  short review of your "obras."  If possible attach a thumbnail picture of the book cover.

Happy reading.

Author Zosimo Quibilan's Pagluwas

FilBookFest is proud to announce a new author.  Zosimo Quibilan, Jr. the author of Pagluwas (Going to the City)  published by the University of the Philippines Press in 2006. Zosimo has been living in the US since 2007 and have been giving occasional talks on Filipino Literature and Language at the University of California Los Angeles. In fact, he just gave a talk last Friday called "Ang Baho ng Lipunan Kaya U d Toilet," an inquiry to understanding Filipino as a language in a Filipino American setting based on his own short story called "U d Toilet" (from Likhaan Journal of Contemporary Literature, 2009).

He writes to us:  "Despite living in the US for four years, this is the first time I am reaching out to the Filipino American literary community. I came across several press releases and blog posts about the Filipino Book Festival to be held in October and I got really excited.  I heard that this is going to be a major event for the Filipino American community and I want to let you know that I would very much like to participate as a featured published author. I could probably read some of my poems or excerpts from my book during the event. "

Zosimo Quibilan, Jr. won the 2006 Philippine National Book Award for Short Story and the 8th Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award in 2008 for Pagluwas (Going to the City) published by the University of the Philippines Press in 2006.  His stories and poems have either appeared or are forthcoming in the International Literary Quarterly, Kweli Journal, Ani, Likhaan Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, Mondo Marcos, Asia Writes, Monday Magazine, Verbsap, 42opus, Bewildering Stories, Mga Kuwentong Paspasan, and Fast Food Fiction, among others. He is currently working on his next book tentatively called "U d Toilet" and occasionally gives talks on Filipino Literature and Language at the UCLA.  He lives in South Pasadena, CA with his wife and three kids.

 Here's a short book description of Pagluwas.

Pagluwas (University of the Philippines Press, 2006) is a book of 52 short tales about passengers who board a bus, bound for Manila from the mountain city of Baguio, and subsequently get involved in a brutal collision. There are no fatalities. There are no survivors.

Written in rich colloquial Filipino, Pagluwas tells us what happened before everyday objects (lipstick, toy robot, a bottle of rum, basketball jersey, vegetables…) and ordinary lives and loves went flying into oblivion. An half-novel, half-anthology of an exploded narrative that gives new meaning to the term "we are what we leave behind" in all its importance and ephemera.