GROWING UP FILIPINO 3 Book Launches and Talks 2023

 

Here is a summary of the GROWING UP FILIPINO 3 BOOK TALKS 2023 - 

To promote the young adult book GROWING UP FILIPINO 3: NEW STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS, the contributors and I did a series of book launches/talks in the Philippines and the United States.  Here are some pictures of those events. Many thanks to the University of Santo Tomas for publishing the Philippine edition of GUF3, and to the hosts of these programs. 

January 28, 2023 — Book Launch, Fully Booked BGC, 6 p.m. Readings by: Nikki Alfar, Cecilia Brainard, George Deoso, Yvette Fernandez, Patti Go, Sarge Lacuesta, Kannika Pena, Dom Sy, Jack Wigley, Danton Remoto. 

l-r: Sarge Lacuesta, Jack Wigley, Cecilia Brainard, Nikki Alfar, Danton Remoto, Ned Parfan, Dom Sy, George Deoso, Yvette Fernandez, Patty Go

CBBC Video of March 18, 2023 Book Launch of Growing Up Filipino 3

 

To those who missed the Book Launch on Marxch 18, 2023 hosted by the Carlos Bulosan Book Club for the YA book GROWING UP FILIPINO 3: NEW STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS, here is the video link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWk44Igi_lk

 

Presenters included Marilyn Alquizola, Ryo Alfar (representing Nikki Alfar), and from some members of the audience who shared their "growing up Filipino" memories: Dr. Herminia Coben Joselyn Geaga-Rosenthal Rachielle Sheffler and Ryo's own personal account.

Many thanks to Jaime Geaga and all at the CBBC.

Don't forget to "like" the YouTube link with the video.

tags: #Filipinoteens #Filipinobooks #filipinoya

Carlos Bulosan Book Club Launches GROWING UP FILIPINO 3

 

Seated l-r: Cecilia Brainard, Ryo Alfar, Marilyn Alquizola, Joselyn Geaga-Rosenthal; standing l-r: James Castillo, Rachielle Scheffler, James Bates, Jaime Geaga, Erlinda, guest, Megan

The Carlos Bulosan Book Club of Los Angeles hosted a launch for the YA anthology GROWING UP FILIPINO: NEW STORIES FOR YOUNG ADULTS, at the Echo Park Branch Library in Los Angeles, on Saturday, March 18, 2023. 

The event was in-person, via Zoom, and Facebook streaming. 

Book Review of Growing Up Filipino 3 by Dr. Lynn Grow, Positively Filipino

 

Book Review of Growing Up Filipino 3 by Dr. Lynn Grow, published in Positively Filipino:

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/sumptuous-fil-am-fiction-roots-and-all

 

 Excerpt,. please continue reading in the Positively Filipino link. 

"Growing Up Filipino 3 is another masterful assemblage of short fiction collected and edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. The quality of this book should come as no surprise given Brainard's track record over the years. She has demonstrated a virtually impeccable literary judgment more than once, not only with Volumes One and Two in the Growing Up Filipino series, but also in very creative collections like A La Carte: Food and Fiction, co-edited with Marily Ysip Orosa (Anvil, 2007), in which recipes for delectable dishes like Kare-Kare are juxtaposed with delectable short stories like Brainard's own “Romeo.” This also illustrates Brainard's conviction that editing and writing are cut from the same cloth. The introduction to her Selected Short Stories (PALH, 2021) makes this clear: “Each of the thirty-nine stories... was born from my obsession over a character, a time period, a situation, or a place ...some ‘thing’... rooted in my imagination, prompting me to give the numinous 'thing' form.” This description applies equally well to the 25 stories in Growing Up Filipino 3..."

#YAbook for Filipinos #filipinoteens #filipinobooks 

 

Sunstar Article - Cebuano Studies Center Holds Cecilia Brainard Talk

 

Many thanks to my friend Atty. Lyn Ocampo for sharing this picture of the Sunstar writeup re my talk sponsored by Cebuano Studies Center . Dr. Hope Sabanpan Yu, Dr. Bea Lastimosa, and Sunstar, many thanks for your support.

 

Cebuano Studies Center hosted my Feb. 7 talk in Cebu and it also launched a documentary video done in conjunction with the National Commission for Culture and Arts, The Cebuana in the World: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard Writing Out of Cebu (click on this link

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLo3H-Pdy1g&t=342s ).

 

BTW, the Cebuano Arts Center Youtube site has wonderful video documentaries about Cebuano National Artist Resil Mojares.

 My heart is full at all this support for me and my work, and I am grateful.

tags: #Cebuanoliterature #Cebuwriters #Cebuanoculture #Cebuculture #Cebusociety  

Dr. Jenny Ortuoste Writes About Growing Up Filipino 3

 

Excerpt from New Year Reads on Growing Up, ‘Sudden Fiction,’ and a Past Philippines by Dr. Jenny Ortuoste, Manila Standard.net. Jan. 21, 2023

Growing Up Filipino 3 (296 pgs, pb, 2022), collected and edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, are “new stories from young adults.” Among the writers are well-known names such as Oscar Peñaranda, Danton Remoto, Ian Rosales Casocot, and Nikki Alfar.

The stories showcase a wide variety of children’s and young adults’ experiences coping with the nuances of cultures around the world while also coming to terms with what it means to be Filipino.

In Tall Woman From Leyte, novelist Gina Apostol tells of a kindergarten-aged child who unwittingly stumbles into the presence of a lady who was “very, very tall, with two feet of hair. Really.”

Accompanied by “uniformed men,” the lady was “beautiful. She sparkled in the sunlight. Gold was on her arms, jewels on her fingers. Diamonds, green stones, a ruby.” Diamonds also glitter on this mysterious creature’s shoes, but the shine extends to her skin, which is unflattering: her ankles are “silvery, like fish scales.”

It is Imelda Marcos, and the toddler spends an hour or so with her, Marcos Sr., and their guests, in an encounter that reflects the reality of how they perceived themselves (as larger-than-life parents of the country) and other people (as the recipients of their benevolent largesse).

In The Fancy Dancer, John Jack G. Wigley recounts how as a boy growing up in Angeles City “a few meters away from the Clark Air Force Base,” he led a conga line of U.S. servicemen and Filipina sex workers dancing through the streets. The memory is raw and honest, and Wigley shares it with us unflinchingly.

Brainard’s own The Dead Boy is a peek into the life of the elite of Ubec City, the author’s alternate Cebu. Bill Lowry is murdered, perhaps shot by a PC who spied on Bill and his girlfriend Bebop necking. The incident compels the narrator, a teenage girl, to navigate her understanding of the meaning of love, death, and the tenacity of life.

The collection is an interesting one, with many gems of good writing that scintillate. I look forward to some of the stories being taught in literature classes in SHS and college.

***

Schedule of Book Events Related to Growing Up Filipino 3: New Stories for Young Adults

Tags: Filipino teens, Filipino books, YA Filipinos, #YAbooks #teenbooks Philippine books