Thank you Laurel Flores Fantauzzo (author of MY HEART UNDERWATER pub Quill Tree Books) for acknowledging me and my novel). I'm glad my work helped you.
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Monday, October 5, 2020
Filipinos #CopingWithCovid - Tony Robles, North Carolina
The following is part of Cecilia Brainard's series, Filipinos Coping with Covid.
As of October 9, 2020, there are 36,625,213 confirmed Covid 19 cases worldwide, with 1.056,186 deaths. The US has 7,611,722 confirmed cases and 212,840 deaths. (source: John Hopkins University of Medicine).
Filipino American poet, Tony Robles shares with us the following. He had lived in San Francisco for decades but now lives in North Carolina.
Covid-19: An Encounter with a Bee during Quarantine
Copyright 2020 by Tony Robles.
It’s quarantine, shelter in place--the stay at home order. I am blessed to have a home as many do not. Don’t go outside we are warned, do not gather in large groups so as not to spread Covid-19, aka the Coronavirus. With this diktat comes an assortment of mixed messages. We are told not to wear protective masks then we are told to wear them. We are told that the droplets from a cough or sneeze can travel 6 feet and to give others that amount of "social distance" upon encountering them. Then I read in the Washington Post that the droplets can travel as far as 8 feet while other reports indicate the possibility that Covid-19 can be spread by particles emitted via the mouth during normal conversation. Regarding the spread via sneezing and coughing, I came across the term cough droplet ballistics, used to describe the endeavor of observing and measuring the length and trajectory of droplets emanating from a cough or sneeze. I also came across a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that referred to the very phenomenon of coughs and sneezes as violent expiratory events and the issuance of fluids thereof as multiphase turbulent buoyant clouds with suspended droplets of various sizes. I have always been cognizant of my coughing and sneezing in public, but not all people are. Given our pandemic and the careless coughers and sneezers among us, studies such as these should not go unnoticed.
CECILIA BRAINARD’S BOOK ACAPULCO AT SUNSET AND OTHER STORIES REISSUED
CECILIA BRAINARD’S BOOK ACAPULCO AT SUNSET AND OTHER STORIES REISSUED
PALH (Philippine American Literary House) announces the release of the US edition of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard’s short story collection, Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories. The book is available from Amazon on sale for $11.95:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716075
First published in the Philippines
in 1995, the book collects seventeen stories inspired by the author’s Filipino
and Filipino American experiences; they are grouped into four categories: Long
Ago Tales, Stories from the ‘60s and ‘70s, Stories from the ‘90s, and American
Tales.
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Cecilia's Opinion of 2020 - The Scream
This is my opinion of 2020, with acknowledgement of Edvard Munch's "The Scream."
Tags; #writerswhosketchanddraw
Friday, October 2, 2020
CECILIA BRAINARD’S BOOK ~ WOMAN WITH HORNS & OTHER STORIES ~ REISSUED
CECILIA BRAINARD’S WOMAN WITH HORNS & OTHER STORIES REISSUED
PALH (Philippine American Literary House) announces the release of the US Edition of Cecilia Manguerrra Brainard’s short story collection, Woman with Horns and Other Stories.
First published in the Philippines in 1987, the reception of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard’s first book has been extraordinary. Her mythical place “Ubec” (Cebu backwards), which is the setting for most of the stories, was embraced by Cebuanos and “Ubec” and has become part of their lexicon. Teachers use stories from this collection and YouTube has student films of the lead story “Woman with Horns” in particular. There is even a Wikipedia write-up about “Woman with Horns.”
The book collects a dozen stories that draw from historical and contemporary sources. Many of these stories explore the clash of Philippine culture with foreign influences that reached the archipelago during different historical periods.
Marie Castillo-Prudent praised the book in Katipunan as follows, “Beautifully written in the minimalist style yet never lacking color and clarity, Brainard’s stories reach out from the deep centuries of folklore, superstition, religion, customs, geography and history to bring them life into the present. But more than life itself, this book mirrors the unique ways in which the Filipina woman searches for meaning. The locale and period of each story expand rather than limit the characters’ choices.”
The Manila Times called the book “A welcome addition to Filipiniana.”
The US edition of Woman with Horns and Other Stories presents this beloved book to a new audience. For a limited time, Woman With Horns and Other Stories: US Edition in paperback is available from Amazon for $9.95. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716032) The book is also available in Kindle form.
Cecilia Brainard is the author and editor of over twenty books, including her novels, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, and The Newspaper Widow. Her Selected Short Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is forthcoming by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House.
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Tags: books Philippines Cebu Sugbo literature fiction short stories literary
