Sao Paulo Brazil Adventure -- Day 2

 

November 7, 2025

Today the Egyptian writer Mai Khaled and I struck out on our own to do some sightseeing. First of all, Sao Paulo is huge, sprawling, and somewhat chaotic; second, Formula 1 is here and all hotel rooms in Sao Paulo are booked so we are staying outside of the city proper. Usually I like to stay in the center of cities for easy access to historic places. Since this was not the situation, we had to plan our trip to the city, making sure to see as many places as possible.

We did that, and quite successfully, thanks to AI, hotel staff, and Uber ---yaay!!

Sao Paulo, Brazil Adventure - day 1

Mai Khaled and Cecilia Brainard 

 The "perfect days" we've been having ended yesterday, Thursday November 6. First, at the Porto Alegre airport, we waited at the wrong area, next as we were being checked at the X-ray section, I was stopped to be checked -- palms and backpack inspected. Then later Mai was called to remove her battery pack from one of her suitcases.

Further we learned we didn't have hotel rooms reserved and Leonardo sent messages about booking us between a hotel outside of Sao Paulo versus a BNB on Paulista Street or area. We chose the BNB for the location, but when we arrived Sao Paulo and were met by the taxi driver were informed we would be staying at the Comfort hotel rather than the BNB.

Mai had some other difficulties but the "bad streak ended" at 6 pm when Leonardo picked us up for a ride and dinner and dessert in Sao Paulo.

Sao Paulo reminds me of Manila - huge, sprawling, busy, crowded city.

So, here we are through Saturday for Mai and Sunday for me.

PS: I was heartened to hear from Lorena who picked up a copy of the Portuguese translation of my Selected Short Stories at the Porto Alegre Book Fair. She writes:

"Cecilia, I started to read your beautiful book. I was searching for the story about the woman who wanted to wear a wedding dress that didn't fit her. I ended up reading the other one named The Turkish Dressmaker.

Wow. I love it. So intense and beautiful."

I also just fully realized that my Brazilian publisher only publishes award-winning books and authors for his imprint Editora Rua do Sabao. I was happy that my Selected Short Stories found this home here in Brazil.

Lorena is one of the beautiful women in the group photo of women.

Tags; Sao Paulo adventure, #booksphilippines #filiponowriter #filipinonovels

Porto Alegre Book Fair -- Day 2

 

Today was a busy but highly satisfying day. Egyptian novelist Mai Khaled and I had mini- interviews for publicity purposes, photo shoot, 30- minute podcast interview, a 1 hour plus book talk/discussing led by writer Catia Castilho Simon. Book signing followed.

I must commend the organizers, who despite the number of authors they had to deal with, treated Mai and me with great care. We had an escort assigned to us during our stay here. People were courteous and very kind to us at every turn. Everything was managed in a professional and at the same time warm and personal way. 

It was the same the with the audience. They were attentive and genuinely interested and appreciative of what we had to offer. 

Porto Alegre Brazil Book Fair -Day 1

 

Egyptian novelist Mai Khaled and I are in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the book fair. Our Brazilian publisher and translator Leonardo Garzaro /Editors Rua do Sabao arranged for our participation.

It was a long trip for Mai and me, but we made it. Morgana Baldissera met us at the airport with a car and driver to take us to our hotel in the historic district. 

After we rested, Morgana took us to lunch and a walking tour, allowing us to see the old buildings, 1869 marketplace, fairgrounds, agricultural exhibit. 

Porto Alegre is situated at the junction of 5 rivers. It is an important port and business center. The book fair that is 71 yrs old is an important event of this place and it enjoys the support of the public and corporate sponsors. I was impressed that on a Tuesday afternoon, the book fair and related events had many people. The book talks were full.

Our real obligations are tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Here are some pictures.

Plantation Bay: Where "Real Food for Real People" Still Means Something

 

PLANTATION BAY: WHERE "REAL FOOD FOR REAL PEOPLE" STILL MEANS SOMETHING

by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard 

Cebu has long been known for its mangoes, lechon, and easy warmth, but tucked within its southern shores is a resort that takes food as seriously as it takes its sunsets. Plantation Bay Resort & Spa (plantationbay.com) may be best known for its lagoons and Japanese-inspired spa, yet its real revelation begins at the table.

At a time when many resorts outsource culinary direction or reduce menus to interchangeable buffets, Plantation Bay’s kitchens remain insistently personal. The guiding principle is disarmingly simple: feed people honestly, beautifully, and well. Every dish, whether humble or haute, honors that compact.

 

Top Translated Filipino Authors - Includes Cecilia Brainard

 

Thanks to my literary agent Senja Pozar for negotiating all but one of my foreign translations, putting me in the 'Top Translated Authors' of the Philippine Works and Translation Data base.

The data base chart, maintained by Anthony John Balisi, a project begun by the NBDB, is from September 2025.

It's dynamic and changes. In this chart I tie with Nobel Prize Winner Maria Ressa in getting 17.2 percent of the total number of translations.

Thanks to my literary agent Senja Pozar for negotiating all but one of my foreign translations, putting me in the 'Top Translated Authors' of the Philippine Works and Translation Data base.

As of 2024, my Selected Short Stories and three novels (When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, The Newspaper Widow) have been translated into:

Azerbaijani (Qanun Publishing House);
Arabic (Egyptian Office for Publishing and Distribution);
Greek (Lemvos Editions);
Japanese (Genki Shobou);
Portuguese (Editora Rua do Sabao, Brazil);
North Macedonian (Bata Press),
North Macedonian (Prozart Media Dooel);
Serbian (Agora Press);
Slovenian (Super Zalozba); and
Turkish (Bilge Kultur Sanat).

Several of my short stories have been translated into Finnish.

I'm sharing this primarily to give credit to my literary agent Senja.

For more information:

PHtranslationdatabase@gmail.com

Read the latest (30 September 2025) update:

Academia: https://www.academia.edu/.../The_Database_of_Philippine...

Short link: https://bit.ly/PHTranslationDB2025-09

I'm sharing this primarily to give credit to my literary agent Senja.

For more information:

PHtranslationdatabase@gmail.com

Read the latest (30 September 2025) update:

Academia: https://www.academia.edu/.../The_Database_of_Philippine...

Short link: https://bit.ly/PHTranslationDB2025-09

Cecilia Brainard and Senja Pozar

Read also:

Plantation Bay, A Weekend Retreat 

Top Translated Filipino Authors - Includes Cecilia Brainard 

Cross-cultural Exchange Via Cecilia Brainard's Translations 

Press Release about foreign Translations of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Fiction 

Publishers of Cecilia Brainard's Foreign Translations 

Filip Batkoski (Bata Press) 

Leonardo Garzaro (Editor Rua do Sabao) 

Senja Pozar - Literary Agent

Dimitris Tsoukatos (Lemvos Editions) 

Mohamed Radi (Egyptian Office for Publishing and Distribution

Dejan Trajkoski (Prozart Media)

 Nenad Saponja (Agora)

Jale Memmedova (Qanun Publishing House)

Dr. Takuya Matsuda (Genki Shobou)

#bookphilippines

#phlgoh25

#GoH2025

#FrankfurtBookFair2025

#ImaginationPeoplestheAir

#Filipinotranslations

Cross-cultural Exchange Via Cecilia Brainard's Translations

L-r: Filip Batkoski, Senja Pozar, Nenad Saponja, Mohamed Radi, Leonardo Garzaro, and Dejan Trajkoski

Press Release -10/19/25

Cross-cultural exchange via Cecilia Brainard's Translations 

The 14 foreign translations of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's three novels (When the Rainbow Goddess wept, Magdalena The Newspaper Widow) and her Selected Short Stories were celebrated on October 17, 2025. Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Fiction brought together these publishers:

Filip Batkoski (Bata Press, North Macedonia),

Leonardo Garzaro (Editora Rua do Sabao, Brazil),

Nenad Saponja (Agora, Serbia)  

Mohamed Radi (Egyptian Office for Publishing and Distribution),

Dejan Trajkoski (Prozart Media, North Macedonia).

Brainard's literary agent, Senja Pozar, who also did a Slovenian translation of Brainard's novel moderated the program. She credits Cecilia Brainard's books for promoting cross-cultural exchange, which is one of the goals is the Frankfurt Book Fair. 

Publishers who were not present were noted in the joyful event, including:  Dimitris Tsoukatos (Lemvos Editions, Greece); Takuya Matsuda (Genki Shobou, Japan); and Jale Mammadova, (Qanun, Azerbaijan).

Watch on Youtube - https://youtu.be/VSeQFSzyjr8

READ ALSO

          Cross-cultural Exchange Via Cecilia Brainard's Translations 

Cecilia Brainard Fiction: The One-Night Stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair  

         Cecilia Brainard Fiction: After the Ascension 

            Celebrating Translations of  Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Fiction

How I Became a Writer Series

Ian Rosales Casocot 

Caroline S. Hau

 Paulino Lim, Jr 

 Cecilia Brainard Fiction: The One-Night Stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair  

  Cecilia Brainard Fiction: After the 

#GoH2025 

#FrankfurtBookFair2025 #ImaginationPeoplestheAir 

#fbm25 

India - Philippines Dialogue - Cecilia Brainard #fbm25

Via Kumar Vikram, Oct. 18, 2025

 

📚🌏 The India–Philippines Publishing Dialogue at the India Stage, Frankfurt Book Fair 2025, was a vital session for literary cooperation, gaining special significance as the Philippines is this year's Guest of Honour Country. The dialogue was chaired by Prof Milind Sudhakar Marathe (Chairman, National Book Trust, India) and Kumar Vikram (Chief Editor & Joint Director, NBT-India) moderated the session. 

Munich-based Axel Timo Purr Interviews Cecilia Brainard - Podcast

 

Axel Timo Purr's interview of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is now in the podcast of his Munich-based LITERATUR REVIEW.

https://literatur.review/en/podcast/between-old-and-new-home

Between Old and New Home

By Axel Timo Purr 

IF I HAD ONE MAGICAL WISH, I would give an old-school anthropologist like Fedor Jagor the chance to travel back in time to our present day. How would he deal with the encounters of this literary journey that followed his geographical traces, and how would he understand the concept of our globalised world today, which also involves people and authors leaving their country and becoming part of another culture? Like Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, who started writing as a young girl from an educated middle-class family in Cebu City and went to California as a young woman to study film - but ended up sticking with writing and becoming one of the most successful authors of the Filipino diaspora in the US. I reach her via a Zoom call at her home in Santa Monica, and despite the distance, the conversation is as close and intimate as with any author I've met on my trip.

Despite the graphical distance, Brainard is always a Filipino author; she visits the country regularly. And her stories are always stories from Cebu - albeit written in English because she was brought up in English and not in Cebuano. Nevertheless, she is certain that she would be a very different author if she had stayed in the Philippines. She may not share the fate of Thomas Mann, whose time in exile had a lasting effect on his writing and thinking, but she is also a "PhilAm" author whose novels such as The Newspaper Widow interweave memory, colonial history and female self-determination and who has also had to deal with the blessings and curses of the American publishing world: sometimes wanted, then rejected again if the sales figures are not right. She is now at peace with this; her books have also been translated into numerous other languages. She is more concerned about the decline in "high literature", even if she herself acknowledges that the new, "fashionable" genres and their authors are certainly doing their best. But like Bebang Siy, Brainard says that the Philippines needs more "serious" literature in order to get a grip on the present and future with all its crises.

And perhaps also - as Justin, a student at the Polytechnic University, told me on my last day in Manila, in the legendary bookshop Solidaridad - a new concept of culture that could hark back to the pre-colonial era, when music and lectures were still free and open to all."

Axel Timo Purr - Literatur Review 

Read also

Cross-cultural Exchange Via Cecilia Brainard's Translations 

Press Release about foreign Translations of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's Fiction 

Publishers of Cecilia Brainard's Foreign Translations 

Filip Batkoski (Bata Press) 

Leonardo Garzaro (Editor Rua do Sabao) 

Senja Pozar - Literary Agent

Dimitris Tsoukatos (Lemvos Editions) 

Mohamed Radi (Egyptian Office for Publishing and Distribution

Dejan Trajkoski (Prozart Media)

 Nenad Saponja (Agora)

Jale Memmedova (Qanun Publishing House)

Dr. Takuya Matsuda (Genki Shobou)

#GoH2025 #ImaginationPeoplestheAir #phlgoh2025 #booksphilippines #FBM2025