More Re A La Carte - National Book Award Finalist

My friend and co-editor of A La Carte, Marily Orosa, informed me that A La Carte is a finalist for the National Book Award in Anthology:

FINALISTS TO THE 2008 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS
According to the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board, these are the finalists for the National Book Awards for books published in 2007:

ANTHOLOGY:A La Carte, edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa; At Home in Unhomeliness, edited by J. Neil C. Garcia; Best Filipino Stories, edited by Gemino H. Abad and Gregorio C. Brillantes; Cordillera in June, edited by B. P. Tapang; Ang Dagling Tagalog, 1903-1936, edited by Rolando B. Tolentino and Aristotle Atienza; Mga Piling Dulang Mindanao, edited by Arthur P. Casanova; Very Short Stories for Harried Readers, edited by Vicente Garcia Groyon.

Marily and I are delighted and amused that A La Carte is still attracting literary attention. The book won the prestigious Gourmand Award 2008 as the Best Food Literature Book from the Philippines. It also won third in the International Gourmand Award in London. Here are the book's blurbs:

"A menu of stories to suit your every craving! That’s A la Carte: Food & Fiction. This book fills a hunger in Philippine literature for fantasy, hyper-reality, romance, mystery … but with a good measure of culinary flavoring mixed in."
Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, culinary heritage advocate and writer

"Here is a book guaranteed to satisfy even the most discriminating taste, but also to make readers hungry for more stories, characters, insights, and recipes. Fact, fiction, fantasy, and food mix in a feast for the mind, the heart, the palate, and the soul. There are many well-known writers in the anthology, but it is not so much who writes as what is written that makes this book a must-read, just as it is not so much the chef or the cook that makes a recipe to die for, but the dish itself. Enjoy the 25-course banquet."
Isagani R. Cruz, The Philippine Star

"Books on food are quite popular these days and we are glad that recent
publications have gone beyond mere recipes to evoke what Proust called a
‘remembrance of things past.’ "
Ambeth R. Ocampo
Chairman, National Commission for Culture and the Arts
Chairman, National Historical Institute

INTERVIEW FOR MELLON, re A LA CARTE FOOD & FICTION

There's some flurry of publicity in the Philippines, in response to A La Carte's winning the Gourmand Award in the Philippines, and vying for the Best in the World Gourmand Award. My co-editor of the anthology, A La Carte Food & Fiction (Anvil, 2007)asked me to answer some interview questions for Mellon. I sent in my draft, and Marily will add and edit our responses to this magazine (I'm assuming Mellon is a Magazine). Here are my unedited answers to the questions:

1. What inspired you and your co-editor to collect a compilation of short stories about food?
see our book, p. vi Introduction - "It was this deep connection that Filipinos have for food that prompted Marily Orosa and me to edit this collection of Philippine and recipes. Marily and I share a love for fiction primarily because we believe that stories reflect the soul or culture of a people. So does food, and we thought that combining stories and recipes in one book would reveal Filipino culture in a unique manner, and would invite lovers of both stories and food to take a look at our delectable collection."

2. How did you choose which stories to include in the anthology? How about the recipes?
We put out a search for short stories related to food. We let other writers know about our project; we used the internet primarily to put the word out.
When the stories came in, we chose what we thought were the strongest works of fiction that were food-related. In most cases, the authors provided recipes that connected with their stories. In some cases, we helped the authors find recipes that would work with their piece.

3.Aside from the obvious theme of food, is there any other running theme that connects all the stories in the book?
Relationships - is a strong theme in the stories.

4. Were there any problems you encountered during the process of creating the book? How did you overcome these obstacles?
It was work finding stories that were good and with the right food-theme. We had to make a lot of effort to track down writers all over the world.

5. Your book was recently shortlisted for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2007. How do you feel about that? What do you think makes A La Carte different from other fiction books or books about food?
We are delighted and amused that the book won the Philippine Gourmand Cookbook Award, and is shortlisted for the Best in the World award. The stories included in this anthology are strong; they are character-driven stories, and as such reveal much about Filipinos, their relationships with families and others, and also about Filipino culture. We are amused primarily because we (Marily and Cecilia) did this book project because of our friendship from college days. Finding ourselves in the same literary world, we had talked for years about doing a book project together. We have edited two books, Behind the Walls (full title), and A La Carte Food & Fiction, to fulfill this promise.

6. What important insights did you learn during the whole course of making the book which you wish to impart on your readers?

Insights: Creativity and Fun go together - we had fun doing this book; it was meant to be a fun project, and the book also turned out to be a fine literary book;
Our stories (that is stories about Filipinos) and our books can be just as interesting and captivating as any other in the world, as evidenced by the attention the Gourmand people have given it. The Gourmand Awards are coveted by huge mainstream publishers worldwide and two books by Anvil are in the top three, vying for the international awards.

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Note: Marily Orosa is the publisher of Studio 5, which has published numerous award-winning coffee table books about Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, and others.
Picture above shows Marily, me, and Lauren;
Next picture shows Marily and me at book launching of Behind the Walls. I'm the one in the extreme left, and Marily is wearing red; she's behind Linda Panlilio. Miss International, Gemma Cruz Aramet, whose piece is part of the anthology Behind the Walls, is on the far right;