Celebration: An Anthology to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop Sands and Coral, 2011-2013
Silliman University, 2013
To get back on track, I accepted this invitation from Virginia Stack and her Valencia Book Mobile brigade to read my picture book The Great Little Hunter, to a bunch of youngsters, aged 7-10, in Bong-ao, Valencia last Saturday. I had the time of my life! The children were initially shy but they were also curious and interested, and I really do think this is the best age range to get kids to start and love reading, the way I was when I was their age and encountered Henny Penny. This is the thing about Dumaguete becoming a UNESCO City of Literature: it is curious to have this designation now in an age when literacy among children is falling away fast. How can we have a City of Literature when nobody reads anymore? That's a question we are grappling with, and this literacy program is part of our solution. Thank you Tata and your Indefatigable team of teachers and volunteers for making this commitment work!
It always feels like an honor and privilege when people send me videos of them reading The Great Little Hunter aloud to their children. I mean, that's the best kind of validation, right? When your target audience is truly enjoing, and learning from, a story you've written for them? This is my friend Jean Cuanan-Nalam reading to her boy. Thank you, Jean!
You can get your copy of the softbound edition at this link.
A sigh of relief and gratefulness. The art talks went over really well! Lovely interaction with a great audience — although admittedly I was at pains preparing a talk after the gruelling day we had yesterday. This was also the first time I’ve done a face-to-face lecture since the pandemic started, so that took getting used to. And that concludes our final event for The Great Little Hunter exhibit, which concludes on April 24, Sunday. Thanks to all who supported us in this journey!
I began writing The Great Little Hunter in the summer of 2018 with the hopes of entering it into an international picture book competition. I knew I wanted to write about a boy confronting his fears, and I also knew I needed the story to be steeped in local culture. And then the idea of a child “mangangayam” [or hunter] came about. After a few days trying to bring the story down to less than 500 words, I thought of only one person who could bring my vision of this story to life: Hersley-Ven Casero. But before even meeting him, I needed to prepare the visuals for each spread of the potential book, so that my story and his potential illustrations would perfectly sync into the structure of a book. These are the pegs I prepared, culled from various art I collected online. [I didn't have the energy or the time to properly draw.] Hersley was quickly on board. Two months later, Hersley showed me his work — and I was astonished at how much he was able to flesh out the world of Ngayam, making the story also his own: it was his idea to make each canvas/spread bleed into each other like in a continuous scroll, making all sixteen spreads part of one very long work, with the last spread bleeding into the first one. And every canvas hides all sorts of flora and fauna Hersley studied while making the work. Part of the fun is identifying these!
The first spread...
The second spread...
The third spread...
The fourth spread...
The fifth spread...
The sixth spread...
The seventh spread...
The eighth spread...
The ninth spread...
The tenth spread...
The eleventh spread...
The twelfth spread...
The thirteenth spread...
The fourteenth spread...
The fifteenth spread...
The last spread, which bleeds into the first page, which is not part of a spread...
By the time you are reading this in the weekend paper—probably on a Palm Sunday afternoon at the tail end of the second year of the pandemic—I would most likely be at Dakong Balay Gallery along Rizal Avenue tending to social anxiety brought about by a book.
It is not just any book.
I’ve authored this one, the fourteenth title in my so-so career as a literary artist, but it is my first children’s book that’s actually being published in a major way.
It’s titled The Great Little Hunter, published in a deluxe edition by Pinspired Philippines—hardbound with gorgeous illustrations—purposefully on a limited printing run: a combination of a children’s book and an art book. And I’m proud of it. The way one becomes proud of something finally made tangible after dreaming about it for so long. It took almost four years for this book to come to being, and when I think of all that time passing, I marvel at the intricate ways with which things come into being. They don’t always coalesce, despite the best of efforts, so when they do, you marvel.
I’ve written other children’s stories before. In 2006, my children’s book Rosario’s Stories was an honorable mention finalist at the PBBY-Salanga Writer’s Prize—the country’s top award for children’s literature—in a year when no one copped the actual prize. The great artist Jomike Tejido actually had illustrations ready-made for that book, but I didn’t submit it anywhere for publication. Not then. I told myself I was not ready.
In 2007, another children’s story, The Last Days of Magic, won a prize at the Palanca Awards—and this story would have tremendous legs, quickly becoming a staple in grade school textbooks in Philippine schools, and would actually be translated to Vietnamese by the wonderful writer Nguyen Phan Que Mai in 2017. She would later include it in her 2018 anthology Bay Lên (Taking Flight), together with stories by Junot Diaz, Margaret Atwood, Bina Shah, and others. This story never came out as a standalone children’s book, however—although I included it in my collection Heartbreak and Magic, which came out in 2012. It is probably my most popular children’s story.
In 2018, I tried shopping around a personal anthology of unpublished children’s stories to one or two of the major children’s book publishers in the country. I was told by one publisher they were not taking in such a format, especially for a manuscript written in English. Apparently the market leaned heavily towards those written in Tagalog—but then, a month or so later, that same publisher put out exactly the same kind of book, written in English, by another writer. What does one do? I shrugged and took that as pure publishing disinterest. You win some, you lose some. Such is a writer’s life.
So I privately published that personal anthology myself, which I titled The Boy, The Girl, The Rabbit, The Rat, and the Last Magic Days, in a very limited run—which quickly sold out. I never got around to doing a second printing run. It exhausted me.
It’s not easy to write for children [not even teenagers], but there is something about the genre that appeals to me in a masochistic way. It has set parameters in terms of language and vocabulary, word count, and appeal—and demands a very different way of telling a story, mindful that the intended audience is composed of children, but also mindful that it is never a good idea to underestimate this audience’s comprehension and sophistication. I continue to write children’s stories as an intricate challenge of particular storytelling. I am not alone in this regard. Some of my favorite children’s authors—the great Maurice Sendak, for instance—have the same mindset.
It was around that time—the summer of 2018, to be exact—when I started writing a short children’s story meant to be a picture book. I was teaching a workshop in writing children’s stories, and I wanted a chance to get away from my students’ efforts and put out something of my own. I also wanted to join an international contest—but writing the story I wanted to tell felt paramount.
I wanted it to be about a boy confronting his fears, and becoming triumphant in the end. That is the hope, isn’t it? To prevail versus the darkness?
But I’ve never done a picture book story before, which has its own very specific demands—mostly word count, and almost haiku-like in narrative brevity. How does one tell a satisfying narrative arc in less than 500 words? I’m notoriously a wordy writer, but I’m also notoriously a masochist when it comes to literary challenges. I often like writing in a mode I am most uncomfortable with; it stretches my writing muscles.
I spent three consecutive days in a café, drinking my usual latte and crafting the tale of Ngayam. It became The Great Little Hunter, a story of a boy whose fearful fantasies triggered by the moon conjure a dark jungle in his bedroom, and he soon encounters some of Philippine lower mythology’s dreadful monsters—a wak-wak, a sigbin, and a tikbalang. Shades of Sendak here, but transplanted in the texture of local culture, of personal struggles.
The story done, I knew I wanted an illustrator who best understood me and what went on in the recesses of my imagination. There was no other artist to tap except Hersley-Ven Casero.
Hersley and I go a long way back. I first knew of him sometime in the mid-2000s when MetroPost presented me with a Christmas gift: a pencil portrait of myself drawn by him. [But I thought “Hersley” was a girl’s name.] I loved the portrait, sought out the artist—who turned out to be a wunderkind based in Foundation University. He was prolific, churning out art and photography with the energy of a creative virtuoso. It was not long before I took up the challenge of curating an exhibit of his photography, together with that of John Stevenson’s, at the Silliman Library Gallery—in a 2008 show [Dumaguete Light and Dark] that compared and contrasted various views of the city both in vibrant color [Hersley’s] and in somber black-and-white [John’s]. That exhibit cemented a long-term relationship of artistic collaborations—and I’m proud to say that I am perhaps the one art critic constant in my championing of his work over the years.
In 2011, for the release of my second major fiction collection, Heartbreak and Magic, published by Anvil—I tapped Hersley to do the illustrations that heralded every story in the book. The works he submitted were astonishing, and so when it came to launching the book in Dumaguete, I broached the idea of doing both a book launch and an art exhibit, showcasing not just the illustrations Hersley made for the book but also gathering together all the art pieces and paintings he had made by then, which I curated. The resulting show, Uncommon Ordinary Magic, would also mark a turning point in Hersley’s artistic career: it was to be his first solo exhibition as an artist.
In the summer of 2018, after I extended to him my invitation to come on board as the illustrator for The Great Little Hunter, Hersley—who was already busy doing many commissioned work and preparing for various exhibitions—became possessed by the story, at least according to what he later told me. Ngayam possessed his imagination, and so, in a stretch of several consecutive days and nights [almost going sleepless], he set about putting the world of Ngayam’s fantasies on canvas.
The resulting seventeen paintings were [and are] exquisite. Each canvas, embued in rich shades of color, told separate segments of Ngayam’s story. But taking the inspiration [and form] of an unfolding tale, each canvas he made also became pieces of an interconnected visual narrative, each picture spilling into the next with almost magical continuity. The paintings taken together become like a scroll from beginning to the end, and even the last canvas connects in an organic way to the first, making an infinite loop of a magical story. I was enamored by what Hersley had done.
But everything remained in a standstill for two years after. Only in March 2021, right smack in the middle of the pandemic, did things start to move again. The principle reason for things being set in motion once more was the entry of Evgeniya Spiridonova—Jane to friends—into our lives. Having made Dumaguete home all the way from Russia, she—together with husband Max Vasiliev—have created a small but thriving empire devoted to all things imaginative and creative in Dumaguete. They have an escape room and a VR gaming salon with Outpost031, and they have a postcard, stationery, and art shop with Pinspired Philippines. Their first venture into local publishing was putting out a book of Hersley’s street photography titled All in Good Time, which was wildly successful, inviting several print runs. Jane saw our manuscript, and signed on as publisher right then and there.
It was good to have someone captain this ship, especially in fraught times. I had to deal with my mental health in the ensuing months, and having Jane on top of things made me feel safe, as I found myself unable to deal with the nitty-gritties involved. I am extremely thankful to my partner Renz Torres for acting as my agent [and my working brain and sanity] throughout the entire process of publishing this book. And I am sure that Hersley is equally thankful to his wife, the filmmaker Toulla Mavromati. In that regard then, The Great Little Hunter has been a labor of love, in all sense of that word.
What lesson can we—especially me—take from Ngayam’s tale? That it is okay to venture out into the despairing dark and confront what you fear. Your triumph however is in befriending those very monsters, acknowledging them as being part of who you are. I take this as my pandemic story, as my mental health struggle story, as my coming-of-age story.
I do hope you get a copy of this book. It should be available at the Pinspired shop at Dakong Balay along Rizal Avenue, or online at pinspired.ph. This story has been a gift to me and to Hersley, and I hope it will mean the same to everyone who will read it and marvel at the pictures.
The book and art launch of The Great Little Hunter is slated on 10 April 2022, Sunday at 3 PM at the Dakong Balay Gallery, Rizal Avenue. The exhibit will run until April 24. The book, which comes with an assortment of freebies, is available atPinspired.ph.
[83rd of 100]. We are vastly loyal to the books we've read and loved when we were children because they were our first gateways to worlds of imagination that not just informed our reality, but also provided escape from it. That dual effect of books -- as flight and as anchor -- is part of their magic, a truth about reading most bookworms would know. I've loved so many books when I was a kid, and I was indiscriminate in my taste, hopping from classics [Jane Eyre, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Women, Treasure Island, The Wizard of Oz] to popular fare [Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Sweet Valley High, Encylopedia Brown, the books of Enid Blyton, Pippi Longstockings]. I'm grateful for that time in my growing up years, and I do envy my childhood's voraciousness for books, something I fall short of these days given the mundane concerns of adult living. It is this feel of treasuring the worlds of imagination we'd conjured in our heads from the pages of books we loved that make many of us feel proprietary over titles suddenly given to adaptations in visual media: because how we imagined them has a primacy for us, and anything else feels like an invasion, even a thievery. Which is why when Agnieszka Holland's 1993 version of Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved novel about a lonely girl and the botanical magic she conjures from a forgotten parcel of earth came out, I was wary. Will they make Mary Lennox too sweet, for Hollywood's sake, scrapping her initial crabbiness and sullenness? Will they make her too modern, injecting contemporary mores into a Victorian story? Will the manor and garden be as how I'd imagined them, or will they a horror of details gone awry? I was not prepared for disappointing my expectations: Holland -- who had already made a few films about "lost" children like Europa, Europa [1990] and Olivier, Olivier [1992] -- had taken Burnett's story, and made a faithful film of the material, infusing it with the necessary Gothic thrills and leaving the goodheartedness intact. We still get Mary's arc from miserable orphan girl to miracle worker, complete with episodes of hard-earned self-actualization that lead not just to her redemption, but also the redemption of the miserable people surrounding her. I'm not sure this film can be faulted for any bad choices. It feels like something near perfection, especially if you have loved the book, as I had. In the 1990s, there were a few attempts to put to the screen a slew of classics of children's literature, of which this was one. Another one that comes close was Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of A Little Princess [1995], from a novel also by Burnett. Many of them failed to register at the box office, ignored by many -- which always bothered me: people complain too much about not getting wholesome fare at the movie theater, but when actually presented with gems of the wholesome sort, they proceed to ignore them. Thank God, the filmmakers behind these children's films persevered, ensuring us movie treasures we can turn back to once and again, the way I can go back and peruse the pages of my favorite books, which occupy pride of place in my bookshelves. What's the film?
6:01 PM |
A Working Bibliography of LGBT Books in the Philippines
(Or what poet Jerry B. Gracio calls "beklit.")
I honestly thought -- after the massive success of Ladlad in 1994 and the impact it had on many Filipino men and women who grew up gay in the 1990s and read the anthology and its sequels -- that there would be an avalanche of gay and lesbian titles coming out of Philippine publishing and being written by a younger generation of LGBT-identified writers. And then I tried to make a list [the bibliography below].
The list surprised me by its shortness.
A few observations: Only J. Neil C. Garcia, Danton Remoto, and Louie Cano remain prolific in gay publishing. Severino Montano's groundbreaking novel The Lion and the Faun (1965) remains out-of-print. ("It was never even published," Neil tells me. "Too scandalous, libellous... The second half of the 1000+ page manuscript has never been found.") And I'm not sure we can get new reprints of Nicholas Pichay's Ang Lunes na Mahirap Bunuin (1993) and Tony Perez's Cubao 1980 at Iba Pang Mga Katha (1992), both equally groundbreaking. Most gay and lesbian dramas remain uncollected and unproduced. There are hardly any lesbian literary books, which is a sad surprise. (Joy Cruz and Aida Santos seem to have this niche cornered, although Nice Rodriguez does have a book out. Where are the books of Shakira Andrea Sison? Libay Linsangan Cantor? There has not been a follow-up to the one lesbian anthology, Tibok.) And there is barely anything of LGBT-themed children's books. Bernadette Neri's award-winning children's story Ang Ikaklit sa Aming Hardin finally got published independently in 2012 after mainstream publishers kept rejecting it because of its subject matter. And a dearth of gay and lesbian erotica! The edgier kind are published outside of mainstream publishing.
Truth to tell, there are soooo many gays and lesbians in contemporary Philippine literary circles -- we made a joke once in a gathering at U.P. Diliman that there are so many of us we are practically the inheritors of Philippine literature (and then there was a burst of pink laughter) -- but it seems as if not many of them are writing about their experiences as gay men and women and putting out books about it. But then again, my M.A. thesis actually predicted this: that the third wave of gay and lesbian writing in the Philippines, post-Ladlad, would be to go for a kind of invisibility: the writers would write stories and poems and dramas about recognisably gay characters but will refuse to put their gayness (and its attendant issues) as the center of their narratives. So why am I surprised?
Nonetheless, here is the list I managed to compile. Comment if I missed out on any title...
FICTION
Alfar, Dean Francis. Salamanca: A Novel (2006).
Alumit, Noel. Letters to Montgomery Clift: A Novel (2002).
Alumit, Noel. Talking to the Moon: A Novel (2007).
Alvarez, Jack. Ang Autobiografia ng Ibang Lady Gaga (2015).
An Lim, Jaime. The Axolotl Colony: Stories (2016).
Angeles, Mark. Gagambeks at Mga Kwentong Waratpad (2015).
Casocot, Ian Rosales. Beautiful Accidents: Stories (2012).
De Dios, Honorio Bartolome. Sa Labas ng Parlor (1998).
Dee, CJ. The Necromancer (2015).
Gangcuangco, Louie Mar A. Orosa-Nakpil, Malate: A Filipino Novel (2006).
Gilvarry, Alex. From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant: A Novel (2012).
Groyon, Vicente III Garcia. “Boys Who Like Boys.” In On Cursed Ground and Other Stories (2004).
Ilusyunada, Wanda. Mga Kwentong Parlor ni Wanda Ilusyunada (2007).
Juha, Michael and Patrice Marco. Santuwaryo: Tatlong Kuwento Ng Pag-ibig (2014).
Lee, Ricky. Para Kay B (O Kung Paano Dinevastate ng Pag-ibig Ang 4 Out of 5 sa Atin) (2008).
Lee, Ricky. Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata (2011).
Linmark, R. Zamora. Leche: A Novel (2011).
Montano, Severino. The Lion and the Faun: A Novel (1965, unpublished).
Ong, Han. The Disinherited (2004).
Perez, Tony. Cubao 1980 at Iba Pang Mga Katha (1992).
Portalan, Edgar. Bakla Bakla Paano Ka Ginawa? (2010).
Ramos, Ricardo. Flipping: A Novel (1998).
Realuyo, Bino A. The Umbrella Country: A Novel (1999).
Remoto, Danton. Riverrun: A Novel (2015).
Rodriguez, Nice. Throw It to the River: Stories (1993).
Sagrado, Jack. The Lavender Coffin and Other Homoerotic Stories of Mystery and Suspense (2011).
Sagrado, Jack. The Pink Morgue and Other Homoerotic Stories of Mystery and Suspense (2011).
Samar, Edgar Calabia. Si Janus Silang at ang Labanang Manananggal-Mambabarang (2016).
Santos, Aris. Hangganan (2012).
Torres, Gerardo Z. Pink Men In Love and Other Stories (2005).
Torres, Gerardo Z. Kulay Rosas ang Pintig ng Puso: Mga Maikling Kuwento (2009).
Villa, Jose Garcia. "Walk at Midnight: A Farewell" and "Song I Did Not Hear." In Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others (1933).
Villasis, Bobby Flores. Suite Bergamasque: The Boulevard Stories (2001).
Yee, Ernesto Superal. Out of Doors: A Novel (2005).
POETRY
Baquiran, Romulo Jr. P. Kung Nanaisin: Mga Tula (2012).
Baquiran, Romulo Jr. P. Onyx (2003).
Baytan, Ronald. The Queen Sings the Blues: Poems, 1992-2002 (2007).
Carreon, Shane. Travelbook: Poems (2013).
Galan, Ralph Semino. From the Major Arcana (2015).
Gracio, Jerry B. Apokripos (2006).
Gracio, Jerry B. Aves (2009).
Remoto, Danton. Black Silk Pajamas (1996).
Remoto, Danton. Pulotgata: The Love Poems (2004).
Remoto, Danton. Skin Voices Faces (1991).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Closet Quivers: Poems in English (1992).
Garcia, J. Neil C. The Garden of Wordlessness (2005).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Kaluluwa (2001).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Misterios and Other Poems (2005).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Our Lady of the Carnival (1996).
Garcia, J. Neil C. The Sorrows of Water (2000).
Pichay, Nicholas. Ang Lunes na Mahirap Bunuin: Poems in English and Filipino (1993).
Santos, Aida F. Dobol Helix: Mga Piling Tula 1971-1991 (1991).
Santos, Aida F. Spaces: Earthbound, Skybound (2000).
Tan, Joel Barraquiel. Monster: Poems (2004).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Arkipelago kang Kasingkasing (2009).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Anghel sang Capiz (2009).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Kung ang Tula ay Pwedeng Pambili ng Lalake (2005).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Maybato, Iloilo, Taft Avenue, Baguio, Puerto: Mga Tula (2003).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Mga Binalaybay Kang Paghigugma (2008).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Paruparo at Korales/Butterflies and Corals: A Collection of Palawan Poems in Filipino and English (1999).
DRAMA
Abellar, Karlo. Señora Segundina [n.d.].
Abunda, Boy. Engkuwentro (1983).
Alfar, Dean Francis. Short Time (1991).
Alojamiento, Shelfa. Boy-Gel ang Gelpren ni Mommy (2010).
Arejola, Carlos A. Sayod kong Tataramon/Tuwiran Kong Sasabihin: Mga Dulang Pantanghalan at Pampelikula sa Bikol at Filipino (2009).
Balintagos, Kanakan [Aureaus Solito]. Esprit de Corps (1990).
Cabagnot, Edward Delos Santos. The Theatre of Director Julius Opus (2003).
Co-Unjieng, Quito. Skeletons in the Closet [n.d.].
De Jesus, Vincent A. Ateng (2005).
Evangelio, Albert Claude. Pepe en Pil (1990).
Gacoscos, Blaise. Taguan sa Ulan (1993).
Guerrero, Wilfrido Ma. A Clash of Cymbals (1968).
Juan, Anton. Death in the Form of a Rose (1992).
Lana, Jun. Kuwan [n.d.].
Las-O, Bobby. Goodbye, Loverboy [n.d.].
Martinez, Chris. Baclofen [n.d.].
Martinez, Chris. Last Full Show (1994).
Mas, Glenn Sevilla. Games People Play (2007).
Mas, Glenn Sevilla. In the Dark (2001).
Montreal, Lani. Sister-Out-Law (2001).
Nadres, Orlando. Hanggang Dito na Lamang at Maraming Salamat (1974).
Ong, Charlson. Payapang Gabi (1991).
Palanca, Rajit. Intermisyon (1989).
Pichay, Nicholas. Karga Mano (1994).
Rivera, Frank. Casa Verde [n.d.].
Teodosio, J. Dennis C. Gee-gee at Waterina (2002).
Teodosio, J. Dennis C. Payb-Siks (2006).
Topacio, Soxy. Neneng [n.d.].
Unrubia, Clet. Sukatin Man ang Langit [n.d.].
Vera, Rodolfo. Kung Paano Ko Pinatay si Diana Ross (1992).
Vera, Rodolfo. Ralph at Claudia.
Villanueva, Rene O. Dobol [2001].
Villanueva, Rene O. Kumbersasyon [n.d.].
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Matias, Segundo Jr. and Jason Moss. Uncle Sam (2014).
Garlitos, Rhandee and Tokwa Peñaflorida. Ang Bonggang Bonggang Batang Beki (2013).
Neri, Bernadette and CJ de Silva. Ang Ikaklit sa Aming Hardin (2012).
PERSONAL ESSAYS/CREATIVE NONFICTION
Alikpala, Raymond. God Loves Bakla: My Life in the Closet (2010).
Baytan, Ronald. The Queen Lives Alone: Personal Essays (2012).
Cadiz, Gibbs (Ed.). Dear Migs: Letters to Manila Gay Guy (2010).
Cano, Louie. Brusko Pink: King Kong Barbies and Other Queer Files (2005).
Cano, Louie. Masculadoll: Mga Sanaysay ng Buhay Bading na Di Buking (2008).
Cano, Louie. Pamhinta X: Mga Nagbabagang Sanaysay (2010).
Fleras, Jomar. The Quintessential Book of Manners & Etiquette for Filipino Gay Men (1998).
Lee, Raymond [now Moira Lang] (Ed.). McVie’s The Wet Book: Stories From the Bathhouse (2010).
Remoto, Danton. Buhay Bading (2004).
Remoto, Danton. Gaydar (2002).
Remoto, Danton. Happy Na, Gay Pa (2015).
Remoto, Danton. Rampa: Mga Sanaysay (2008).
Remoto, Danton. Seduction & Solitude: Essays (1995).
Remoto, Danton. X-Factor: Tales Outside the Closet (1997).
Reyes, Jose Javier. Porn Again: Midlife Outtakes and Mistakes (2003).
Teodoro, John Iremil. Pagmumuni-muni at Pagtatalak ng Sirenang Nagpapanggap na Prinsesa (2008).
Wigley, John Jack. Falling Into the Manhole: A Memoir (2012).
Home of the Ashfall: A Memoir (2014).
Yap, Karl Lester M. (Ed.). The Chronicles of E (2010).
MIXED PERSONAL ANTHOLOGIES
An Lim, Jaime. Trios/Hedonicus (1998).
Cruz, Jhoanna Lynn. Women Loving: Stories and a Play (2010).
Gallaga, Wanggo. Remnants (2015).
Linmark, R. Zamora. Rolling the R’s (1995).
Tan, Joel Barraquiel. El Canto de Animal (2006).
COMICS
Erang, Claudine. Freedom (2016).
Navasca, Herbs and Rica Angela Padullo. Poster Boy (2014).
Navasca, Herbs and Rica Angela Padullo. Poster Boy: Fair and Square (2015).
Pulumbarit, Oliver. Lexy, Nance, and Argus: Sex, Gods, Rock & Roll (2005).
Vergara, Carlo. Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturrnah (2002/2004).
Vergara, Carlo. One Night in Purgatory (2001).
Vergara, Carlo. ZsaZsa Zaturrnah sa Kalakhang Maynila (2008/~).
GENERAL ANTHOLOGIES
Garcia, J. Neil C. (Ed.). Aura: The Gay Theme in Philippine Fiction in English (2012).
Garcia, J. Neil C. and Danton Remoto (Eds.). Ladlad: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing (1994).
Garcia, J. Neil C. and Danton Remoto (Eds.). Ladlad 2: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing (1996).
Garcia, J. Neil C. and Danton Remoto (Eds.). Ladlad 3: An Anthology of Philippine Gay Writing (2007).
Sarabia, Anna Leah (Ed.). Tibok: Heartbeat of the Filipino Lesbian (2000).
Tolentino, Rolando B., Romulo P. Baquiran Jr., Joi Barrios, and Mykel Andrada (Eds.). Talong/Tahong: Mga Kuwentong Homoerotiko (2011).
Velarde, Armina. Pamana ni Larry. (2007).
CULTURAL STUDIES
Baytan, Ronald, Ralph Semino Galan, and J. Neil C. Garcia (Eds.). Bongga Ka ‘Day: Pinoy Gay Quotes to Live By (2003).
Benedicto, Bobby. Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene (2014).
Buenaobra, Nita P., Leticia F. Macaraeg, Elvira B. Estravo, Leonila A. Villamor, and Anita G. Mangune. Mga Salitang Homosekswal: Isang Pagsusuri (2004).
Callueng, Eva (Ed.). Buhay Bahaghari: The Filipino LGBT Chronicles (2014).
Cano, Louie. Baklese: Pinoy Pop Queer Dictionary (2008).
Capili, Jose Wendell (Ed.). Mabuhay to Beauty!: Profiles of Beauties and Essays on Pageants (2003).
Evasco, Eugene Y., Roselle V. Pineda, and Rommel B. Rodriguez (Eds.). Tabi Tabi Sa Pagsasantabi: Kritikal na Tala ng mga Lesbiana at Bakla sa Sining, Kultura, at Wika (2003).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Myths and Metaphors (2002).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Performing the Self: Occasional Prose (2003).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Philippine Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years (1996).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Postcolonialism and Filipino Poetics: Essays and Critiques (2004).
Garcia, J. Neil C. Slip/pages: Essays in Philippine Gay Criticism (1998).
Holmes, Margarita Go-Singco. A Different Love: Being Gay in the Philippines (1994). [Translated to Tagalog in Naiibang Pag-Ibig: Ang Maging Bakla sa Pilipinas (1995)].
Manalansan, Martin IV F. Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (2003).
Manalansan, Martin IV F. and Arnaldo Cruz-Malave (Eds.). Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism (2002).
Mendoza, Tetay and Joel Acebuche (Eds.). Anong Pangalan Mo sa Gabi? at Iba Pang Tanong sa mga LGBT (2013).
Nadal, Kevin L. That's So Gay! Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community (2013).
OMF Literature [Various Contributors]. What About Same-Sex Marriage?: Christian Filipino Voices on Same-Sex Marriage (2016).
Ponce, Martin Joseph. Beyond the Nation: Diasporic Filipino Literature and Queer Reading (2012).
Remoto, Danton. Bright, Catholic, and Gay (2011).
Silva, John L. A Token of Our Friendship: Philippine Photos of Male Affection—First Half of the 20th Century (2011).
MONOGRAPHS AND TECHNICAL REPORTS
GALANG Philippines. How Filipino LBTs Cope with Economic Disadvantage (2015).
Health Action Information Network. Usapang Bakla (2013).
Lim, Anne Marie and Charisse M. Jordan. Social Protection Policies and Urban Poor LBTs in the Philippines (2013).
Manalastas, Eric Julian and Beatriz Torre. Social Psychological Aspects of Advocating Sexual Citizenship Rights for LGBT Filipinos (2013).
UNDP, USAID. Being LGBT in Asia: The Philippines Country Report (2014).
Whitam, F. L. and R. M. Mathy. Male Homosexuality in Four Societies: Brazil, Guatemala, the Philippines and the United States (1986).
SPECIAL ISSUES OF ACADEMIC JOURNALS
Philippine Journal of Psychology (December 2013). Special issue on LGBT psychology. Philippine Law Journal (October 2014). Special issue on LGBT Rights and law. Plaridel (August 2012). Special issue on queer media and representations. Plaridel (August 2013). Special issue on media and gender identity. University of the East Law Journal (February 2015). Special issue on same-sex marriage.
Many friends helped in completing this bibliography. I'd like to give special thanks to J. Neil C. Garcia, Gilbert Tan, Enrique Villasis, Hendrison Go, Alvin Dacanay Jr., and Edgar C. Samar for their suggestions and inputs. Special shout-out goes to Eric Julian Manalastas of the University of the Philippines Center for Women's Studies who mans the LGBT Section of its library for collating additional materials. Visit him and his magnificent LGBT collection, guys!
5:52 PM |
Amazing Gay Dads in Children's Literature
Happy Father's Day, everyone! The celebration for fatherhood today got me thinking about same-sex dads in children's literature -- a topic that is fairly controversial and not quite common in publishing, although a significant number of titles have sprouted over the years. (The blog Books for Kids in Gay Families has a very good selection of gay-themed children's books from the world over, here.)
I still remember for example the nasty furor that descended on Singapore upon the discovery of a copy of Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson's And Tango Makes Three in the national library in 2014, which then decided to pulp it. This was horrifying and sad because the book truly celebrates love -- and it is in fact based on two true-to-life male chinstrap penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo who did raise a little penguin on their own. That book [buy it in Amazon] should be celebrated, so here's a video of a reading of that book...
Another favourite children's book that celebrates gay dads is Lesléa Newman's Daddy, Papa, and Me from 2009. It is altogether a different book: a very simple story of a young boy who narrates how his two fathers -- Daddy and Papa -- make generous time playing with him, despite what for adults reading the book see as the underlying context of two men being quite busy, and tired, with their adult lives. But they pursue these games anyway with imagination and flair.
11:09 AM |
The Delicious Horror of Children's Books in Film
Jennifer Kent's The Babadook (2014) is perhaps the year's most interesting horror movie, a tantalising amalgam of common unspeakable horrors that even William Friendkin, the director of The Exorcist, tweeted that it scared him. And that's a commendation above all commendations. It is ostensibly about a haunted book, gloriously unexplained by the movie, that hides a monster -- but it is also about post-traumatic nightmares, the horrors of single-parenthood, the stress of a wilful child, the embracing awfulness of popular television programming, the despair of having uncaring family, and the dank darkness of insomnia. Going through the film, it struck me that there are many moments in the life of the harassed single mother in the story -- alone, lacking sleep -- that veered so close to the zombie days I've had when there's too much work and the hours pass by so quickly we don't even have time for much-needed slumber. There are zombies among us, and it's us.
And there's the book. Forget Annabelle and demon-infested dolls. Children's books are scarier, and Mister Babadook most of all.
In the film, the monster from the book comes to life cloaked always in convenient darkness, which is understandable considering the low-budget nature of this enterprise. I'm not sure much CGI went into the making of this movie, perhaps just practical effects -- and thank God for that because all the more it makes the film effective. Because the clever use of shadows, slow-burning sound effects ("baaa-baaa-dooook!"), quick cuts, and misdirection -- which was last used so effectively in Alejandro Amenábar's The Others (2001) -- make the terror more gripping and slithery. The monster has a nice "two-dimensionality" to it that makes its transition from the book's pages seamless.
And now, apparently they're trying to make the book real, with illustrations done by Alex Juhasz, the same artist in the film. I love the idea of a real book, but I'm not sure I'd get one. The whole thing's honestly too creepy.
There's a certain relish to the idea of dark fictional children's books depicted in movies. The only other one I can think of right now is The Door in the Floor, the children's book featured in Tod Williams's 2014 same-titled adaptation of one chapter from John Irving's novel A Widow for One Year. The book, written by one of the story's flawed protagonists, the children's book author Ted Cole (who is played in the film with such gravitas by Jeff Bridges), is about the horrors of childbirth, told from the point of view of the unborn child. And they actually made the book real, with illustrations by Jeff Bridges himself. (How meta is that. Also, I've blogged about this before, here.)
And here's the entire story...
There was a little boy who didn’t know if he wanted to be born. His mommy didn’t know if she wanted him to be born either. This was because they lived in a cabin in the woods, on an island, in a lake—and there was no one else around.
And in the cabin, there was a door in the floor.
The little boy was afraid of what was under the door in the floor and the mommy was afraid, too.
Once, long ago, other children had come to visit the cabin for Christmas, but the children had opened the door in the floor and they had disappeared down the hole.
The mommy had tried to look for the children, but when she opened the door in the floor she heard such an awful sound that her hair turned completely white, like the hair of a ghost.
And the mommy had also seen some things, things so horrible that you can’t imagine them.
And so the mommy wondered if she wanted to have a little boy—especially because of everything that might be under the door in the floor.
Then she thought: “Why not? I’ll just tell him not to open the door in the floor!”
Yet the little boy still didn’t know if he wanted to be born into a world where there was a door in the floor.
But there were also some beautiful things in the woods, and on the island, and in the lake.
“Why not take a chance?” the little boy thought.
So he was born, and he was very happy.
And his mommy was happy again too, although she told the boy at least once every day, “Don’t you ever, not ever—never, never, never open the door in the floor!”
But of course he was only a little boy.
If you were that boy, wouldn’t you want to open that door in the floor?
So would you?
But my favourite one from the film is still "The Mouse Crawling Between the Walls," a very simple children's story that has the exact same devastating power as Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. It goes...
Tom woke up, but Tim did not.
And Tom woke up his father... and asked him, “Did you hear that sound?”
“There’s the sound again,” Tom whispered to his Father.
“It’s a monster!” he cried.
“It’s just a mouse... crawling between the walls,” his father said, and thumped the wall hard with his hand.
And the mouse... scurried away.
“It’s just a mouse. That’s all,” Tom said.
And he quickly fell asleep.
But Tim, he stayed awake all night long.
And every time that thing crawling between the walls came crawling back, he’d hit the wall, and he’d listen to the monster... scurry away, dragging his thick, wet fur, and no arms and no legs with it.
I told you. Children's books are scary...
UPDATE:The Babadook just got nominated for Best Film in the AACTA Awards, which is the Australian Oscars. Good for Jennifer Kent, who also got nominated for Best Director. And here's the scary short film, Monster, that started the whole thing. Watching it now made the underlying themes of The Babadook much clearer. I get it, I get it...
7:00 PM |
Reading to Children
