Grateful to know that people are still reading and talking about my first book! This event is free and open to the public, though they cap registrations after the first 100. Register on Eventbrite.
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 I love these two essays so much, and I'm honored to have been given the opportunity to choose them for this year's Witness Literary Awards! They will appear in the Spring 2025 print issue of Witness. This is what I wrote about the winning entry:
“There’s a sense of nostalgia in the essay 'When You Write about Trees' that invites us to look closely at our own lives and the losses that come with the passage of time. With sentences that stretch and expand to accommodate the shifting nature of wonder, affection, and grief, our narrator takes us along with her as she and her two young children form a lifelong bond with two oak trees in their New England town. As a reader, I was taken by the essay’s measured and contemplative voice, which pulls us into the author’s deepening sense of loss as she watches one tree grow, and other tree age. I love how the lives of these trees aren’t made to reflect the author’s personal struggles, and how she instead recognizes the mysteries that these trees hold, allowing their quiet flourishing to run parallel to the everyday dramas of the human world. There’s a lot of wonder that this essay quietly holds, which resounds beyond the page. It’s a beautiful piece.”  My short story "Leaving God on Cuba Street" originally came out in River Styx's print edition last year (Issue 108: "Chronicles") and after some waiting, it's finally free to read on the River Styx website! Follow Ruth, a Filipino-American woman trying to forge a path of her own in Pōneke/Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, while grappling with the ghosts of her evangelical Christian upbringing. It's rare that I read fiction about Filipinos in New Zealand, which was one of the reasons why I wrote this piece and fought for it through more than sixty rejections. You can read the full story here.
 I'd like to thank Maegan of The Writer's Block Las Vegas for inviting me to help teach this workshop for teens! More information here.
Just thought it best to push through with my AWP plans to bring some cheer to the Los Angeles community after the devastating fires. Though now I might have to get over my (recently awakened) fear of flying, or else go there by bus. Below are my two events: 1) AWP Panel (which I'll be moderating, woohoo!): "The Challenges to Speaking Our Truth: Filipino Women Writing Nonfiction" (Saturday, March 29, 2025, 9 am-10:15 am, Los Angeles Convention Center). With Laurel Flores Fantauzzo, Jen Palmares Meadows, Melissa Chadburn, and Anna Cabe  2) Offsite Reading With Storyknife Writers Retreat Alumnae. Thursday, March 27, 5-7 pm, First Draft DTLA (120 S Olive St.)--I'll be the first reader at this event!  3) Litowitz MFA + MA Faculty and Northwestern University Press Celebratory Reception. Thursday, March 27, 6:00PM-7:30PM, Los Angeles JW Marriott Hotel, Gold Ballroom 4 (I'll be there as a Northwestern University Press author, will just have to leave the Storyknife Reading earlyish)   All events are free and open to the public--check the Black Mountain Institute events page for details on how to register.
 This first aired on January 26 in Las Vegas! Have a listen if you'd like to know more about my work and my forthcoming book, Returning to My Father's Kitchen: Essays, which can be pre-ordered from Northwestern University Press and wherever good books are sold.
Black Mountain Institute Conversations, Season Two, Episode Two: Monica Macansantos Many thanks to the Black Mountain Institute and KNPR Nevada Public Radio for this wonderful opportunity.  Come watch a beautiful black and white WWI movie in German and French with me! Free and open to the public! More information here.
 Pre-order my forthcoming essay collection, RETURNING TO MY FATHER'S KITCHEN, for a chance to win one of two SIGNED copies of my mother's book, DEPARTURES: ESSAYS, which won a Philippine National Book Award in 2023!
To enter this raffle, simply pre-order my book, RETURNING TO MY FATHER'S KITCHEN: ESSAYS, from the Northwestern University Press website, from your local indie bookstore, or from online retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Thriftbooks, or Amazon. Then take a screenshot of your receipt, and send your receipt and name to me via private message or to my email, [email protected], on or before January 5 (US time). On that day, I will put all your names in a hat and randomly pick two winners. Shipping will also be on us. Everyone who enters the raffle before January 5 will be eligible for a signed bookplate from yours truly, as a token of appreciation for your support. About my mother's book, Departures: In this collection of essays, the author reflects on her life and times, including those of family members, whose lives were marked by departures from home, hometown and homeland. Woven into the fabric of individual lives are events and “upheavals” in history – the peasant unrest in the early 20th century, the war in the 1940s, martial rule, the 1990 Luzon earthquake, and the 2020 pandemic – leading to departure and separation. Macansantos writes with candor and melancholy, though not without hopefulness, because memory bears many gifts, including understanding and insight, and possibly, healing. So what are you waiting for? Support Filipino authors and treat yourself to great literature! Please share with anyone who may be interested!  River Styx issue 108, which is now available for pre-order and ships before Christmas, features my short story, "Leaving God on Cuba Street," which is my second published work of fiction about Filipinos in Aotearoa New Zealand. It was a pleasure to work with Fiction Editor Christa Fraser, who found my piece in the slush and generously worked with me to fine-tune the story's ending, and with Bryan Castille, River Styx's Managing Editor, who ferried this piece through the publication process.
The story will also appear online early next year, so stay tuned! (This won't be my last collaboration with River Styx, so stay tuned for more announcements.) |
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