Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Philippine American Literature: Stay Tuned for Benedicta Takes Wing by Veronica Montes




I'm sharing this picture of Bay Area Filipina American writer, Veronica Montes, whose first short story collection is now in production and scheduled for release in early 2017. Stay tuned for Veronica's BENEDICTA TAKES WING, published by PALH.



BENEDICTA TAKES WING (forthcoming)
by
Veronica Montes
ISBN: 9780971945869


Published by PALH
P.O. Box 5099
Santa Monica, CA 90409
Emails: palh@aol.com; palhbooks@gmail.com


This collection of 14 stories by Bay Area Filipina American author, Veronica Montes, is scheduled for release in early 2017.

Author's Bio:

Veronica Montes was born in San Francisco and came of age in the fog and mist of Daly City, California, along with thousands of other Filipino kids who frequently appear, sometimes unbidden, in her short stories. After living in Vancouver, Canada, Washington, D.C., and Santa Barbara, California, she and her husband, Andrew Wadhams, settled back home in the San Francisco Bay Area to raise their three daughters.
Her writing has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, both online and in traditional formats. She is co-author, along with Cecilia Brainard, Erma Cuizon, Susan Evangelista, and Nadine Sarreal, of the dugtungan novel Angelica’s Daughters.
Connect with her at veronica-montes.com


What they say about Benedicta Takes Wing:
“In her eagerly-awaited debut short-story collection, Filipino American author Veronica Montes limns the lives of Filipino families, with wit, simmering fury, and an abundance of generosity. Each piece is a stunningly vibrant photograph found in a faded album, filled with ates and titas and lolas who love and bicker and mourn and laugh. With her sharp eye for the telling detail, she depicts the grief and everyday joy handed down as inheritance, the affections and denials that bind Filipino families together. Montes, describing one of her characters, “makes up stories to replace the ones that were lost.” Reader, let her. Welcome these stories as your own.”
~ Benito Vergara, author of Pinoy Capital: The Filipino Nation in Daly City and Displaying Filipinos: Photography and Colonialism in Early 20th-Century Philippines.

*

“When I read these stories, I am immediately immersed, falling into the lives, hearts and minds of the characters as I do when I am entranced by such stunning storytellers as Isabelle Allende, Marlon James, Lois Ann Yamanaka, and Jessica Hagedorn. 

Montes' stories are a profound collection that moves us fluidly among and beyond physical places, myth, real and dream time. Each story feels like a mantra bringing us back to center, in longing and belonging, reminding us how we lose and find each other in the world. 

Montes' voice is our collective voice, her characters are each of us in our abundant beauty and flaws. How blessed are we to have this Bay Area Pinay author here to share her stories and talent with us!”

~Arlene Biala, recipient of the American Book Award/Before Columbus Foundation for her book of poetry, her beckoning hands.

*

“Veronica Montes is easily one of my favorite prose writers…That she writes gracefully about her culture, that’s a given. But she is more than that, more than just a writer who represents one particular community or racial group.”

~Marianne Villanueva, author of Ginseng and Other Tales From Manila, Mayor of Roses, and The Lost Language.


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