TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: N.V.M. Gonzalez

Showing posts with label N.V.M. Gonzalez. Show all posts

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Philippine Literature: The Centenary of N.V.M. Gonzalez

L-R: Vince Gotera, Virginia Cerenio, N.V.M. Gonzalez, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, William Oandasan

The centenary of the Filipino National Artist for Literature, N.V.M. Gonzalez was celebrated last September 8, 2015. Dr. Adelaida F. Lucero from the University of the Philippines had invited me to write a tribute, which she included with others and which she shared at the university celebration. The following is what I wrote:

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.