HOME
This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.
Interested in What I Create?
Bibliography
![](https://i.imgur.com/8e2nWcP.jpg)
The Great Little Hunter
Pinspired Philippines, 2022
![](https://i.imgur.com/TmdtdEk.jpg)
The Boy The Girl
The Rat The Rabbit
and the Last Magic Days
Chapbook, 2018
![](https://i.imgur.com/Xdx0LXL.jpg)
Republic of Carnage:
Three Horror Stories
For the Way We Live Now
Chapbook, 2018
![](https://i.imgur.com/17s0LFf.jpg)
Bamboo Girls:
Stories and Poems
From a Forgotten Life
Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2018
![](https://i.imgur.com/TINK2a8.png)
Don't Tell Anyone:
Literary Smut
With Shakira Andrea Sison
Pride Press / Anvil Publishing, 2017
![](http://i.imgur.com/9rQW1Ie.jpg)
Cupful of Anger,
Bottle Full of Smoke:
The Stories of
Jose V. Montebon Jr.
Silliman Writers Series, 2017
![](http://i.imgur.com/fC7ndgP.jpg)
First Sight of Snow
and Other Stories
Encounters Chapbook Series
Et Al Books, 2014
![](http://i.imgur.com/JIFzzzv.jpg)
Celebration: An Anthology to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop
Sands and Coral, 2011-2013
Silliman University, 2013
![](http://i.imgur.com/hAql31m.jpg)
Handulantaw: Celebrating 50 Years of Culture and the Arts in Silliman
Tao Foundation and Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee, 2013
![](http://i.imgur.com/U1Sqzzb.jpg)
Inday Goes About Her Day
Locsin Books, 2012
![](http://i.imgur.com/jVMHDfH.jpg)
Beautiful Accidents: Stories
University of the Philippines Press, 2011
![](http://i.imgur.com/xPA0Exq.jpg)
Heartbreak & Magic: Stories of Fantasy and Horror
Anvil, 2011
![](http://i.imgur.com/kMy0MwF.jpg)
Old Movies and Other Stories
National Commission for Culture
and the Arts, 2006
![](http://i.imgur.com/NwosaQc.jpg)
FutureShock Prose: An Anthology of Young Writers and New Literatures
Sands and Coral, 2003
Nominated for Best Anthology
2004 National Book Awards
Follow the Spy
Recent Crumbs
Blogs I Read
© 2002-2021
IAN ROSALES CASOCOT
Monday, December 04, 2006
11:25 AM |
A Quick Overview of Pinoy ChickLit
Say what you will about ChickLit, I do read my fair share of it (...although not lately, I wonder why). There was a huge controversy a while back when Tara FT Sering won a National Book Award for the Y/A novel, which some other literary friends considered as too
Cosmopolitan to be in the category. (And then there was that incident in a literary conference where
Vince Groyon dismissed the whole genre as not being literature at all.) While I do agree with
Carla Pacis's contention, I cannot readily endorse the non-literariness of the whole enterprise (here's Bevz Asenjo writing about
the ChickLit allure in her Friendster blog), because there are a few books that are certainly well-written. Most of all, they do not apologize for being entertaining.
That's why I miss
Summit Books. When the books with their trademark pastel illustrations first came out in every newsstand all over the country, they created a minor revolution, because suddenly they subverted what everybody was saying about book publishing in the Philippines:
they made money. Who said Philippine literature has to be all about nationalist fervor and what-not?
These are the books that caught everybody's fancy...
![](http://www.summitmedia.com.ph/images/books/thumb_mr_write.jpg)
![](http://www.summitmedia.com.ph/images/books/thumb_wander_girl.jpg)
![](http://www.summitmedia.com.ph/images/books/thumb_have_baby_will_date.jpg)
![](http://www.summitmedia.com.ph/images/books/thumb_who_stole_my_magic.jpg)
Consider those names, some of them Palanca-winning authors... Andrea Pasion, Tara FT Sering, Tweet Sering, Claire Betita, Melissa Salva, Mabi David, Maya O. Calica, and Abi Aquino. A formidable bunch that churned out one book after another.
But the flow seems to have dwindled to a trickle somewhere. (
Tara, where are you?) Today, however, it is
PSICOM Publishing -- the current purveyor of popular literature that includes
The Philippine Ghost Stories series -- that is taking up the slack, although I have yet to read a single title. Here are some books from
Katrina Ramos-Atienza, though:
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/129/3459/320/Pinkshoesfront.jpg)
And here's another from a great friend and writer, the Palanca-winning Anna Sanchez-Ishikawa:
![](http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/129/3459/320/Odd%20Girl%20Outfront.jpg)
Sure, they're about the icky stuff. I
like the icky stuff. So do you, admit it.
Labels: books, philippine literature
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
GO TO OLDER POSTS
GO TO NEWER POSTS