By Allen Gaborro Philip Bowring, a longtime journalist well-versed in Asia-Pacific affairs, puts forth his study of the history of the Philippines up to the advent of the post-Duterte period, “The Making of the Modern Philippines: Pieces of a Jigsaw State.” In reading Bowring’s book, we discern that the past can be retroactively instructive to […]
By Selen Ozturk PEN America reports 1,477 individual U.S. book bans during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year — 28% more than the prior six months. Forty percent of books banned from July 2021 to June 2022 had protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color; 21% had titles indicating race issues. Examples of such banned books […]
Why do Filipinos ask, Kumain ka na? (Have you eaten yet?) whenever they meet? This book, compiled and edited by UK-based Filipina editor Jacqueline Chio-Lauri, presents the extraordinary food culture of the Philippines in stories and recipes from 36 culinary trailblazers—award-winning chefs, food writers and social media stars from around the globe. They share not […]
By Loida Nicolas Lewis Since my memoir “Why Should Guys Have All the Fun? An Asian American Story of Love, Marriage, Motherhood and Running a Billion Dollar Empire”was launched in March, 2023 in time for the Women’s History Month, I have been receiving invitations to do book signing/interviews in various cities where FilAms are numerous and […]
By Allen Gaborro With the passage of time, the Filipino immigrant experience in America has developed into a paradigmatic theme for Filipino and Filipino American novelists. Prominent writers such as Carlos Bulosan, Jessica Hagedorn, Bienvenido Santos, Elaine Castillo, and Mia Alvar have made it their literary missions to articulate the U.S.-Philippine relationship from the standpoint […]
One night Elizabeth Ann Besa-Quirino received a phone call from a stranger that changed her life. “You don’t know me, but your mother saved my life,” the caller said. That late-night conversation with an American World War II veteran and POW revealed to Elizabeth Ann Besa Quirino the untold stories of her mother’s remarkable wartime […]
Some girls call their mother their best friend. Marisol Martin? She could never relate. She and her mom were forever locked in an argument with no beginning and no end. Clothes, church, boys, no matter the topic, Marisol always felt like there was an unbridgeable gap between them that they were perpetually shouting across, one […]
By Loida Nicolas Lewis Last May, in Vancouver Canada, I was hosted by Filipino Canadians Treenee Lopez, and Lenore and Jose Lim, for my book tour of “Why Should Guys Have All The Fun?” Treenee asked me to attend an organization of Filipinos in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada to be held on June 1st. She is a […]
By Robbin Charles Dagle Glenda Oris, who teaches in the Kagawaran ng Filipino (Department of Filipino), is known for her work in the area of children’s literature, specifically picture books and historical fiction for young adults. Oris has won acclaim for her books from the Philippines’ top literature prizes such as the Palanca Awards […]