I'm sharing the press release regarding my forthcoming book "Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose" which will be released in Cebu this Feb. 5, by the University San Carlos Press. There will be a limited hardbound edition available at the book launch. If any one wants a hardbound copy, please contact palh@aol.com.
UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS RELEASES NEW BOOK “OUT OF CEBU”
The University of San Carlos Press is proud to announce that the book, Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose, by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard will be released on February 5, 2012.
The book collects 28 essays about the author’s Cebuano ties, including colorful accounts about her mother’s family, the Cuencos, a prominent political family in Cebu. The book also includes writings about the author’s life and travels outside of Cebu.
The book has received early praise from the educator, Dr. Edmundo Litton of Loyola Marymount University who says, “These essays celebrate a pride in a heritage. Brainard is clearly proud of her Cebuana heritage and this pride shows in this magnificent collection of essays.”
Likewise, Dr. Susan Evangelista of Palawan State University comments, “I knew Cecilia Manguerra Brainard first as a fiction writer, writing from the U.S., but grounded in the physicality of Ubec, Cebu, of course. Later when I got to know her as a friend, I discovered another layer which involved her deep interest, research in and thinking about Filipino history, particularly Magellan, who died,of course, in Cebu.”
The author, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, was born and raised in Cebu. Her parents were Engr. Mariano F. Manguerra and Concepcion Cuenco Manguerra. She attended St. Theresa’s College in Cebu and San Marcelino; she obtained her AB in Communication Arts at Maryknoll College. She went on to do graduate work in film making at UCLA, but later went into writing when she was a young wife and mother. Aside from writing and editing, she teaches at the prestigious Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension.
Brainard has written nine books, including the internationally-acclaimed novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, which chronicles the coming of age of a young girl in Ubec (Cebu backwards) during World War II, a novel inspired by her own parents’ experiences during the war. Brainard first coined the mythical place “Ubec” in her first short story collection, Woman with Horns and Other Stories, and she continued to use this setting in her other works of fiction: Magdalena, Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories, Vigan and Other Stories.
She has also written books of nonfiction, edited four books, and co-edited six more. Her writings have been translated into Finnish and Turkish.
Brainard has received a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District. She has also been awarded by the Filipino and Filipino American communities she has served. She received the prestigious Filipinas Magazine Arts Award, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants in the Philippines, from the USIS (United States Information Service).
She has lectured and performed in worldwide literary arts organizations and universities, including UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Beyond Baroque, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program at UCLA-Extension.
She is married to Lauren R. Brainard, a former Peace Corp Volunteer to Leyte, Philippines; they have three sons and several grandchildren.
Brainard’s book, Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Essays, is available from Cebu’s University of San Carlos Press (sancarlospublications@yahoo.com).
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