News and Events - Monica Macansantos

Monica Macansantos

end of residency presentation, carson muccullers center (november 12, 6 pm, columbus, ga)

10/30/2025

In case you're in Columbus, Georgia on November 12, come join me and the Carson McCullers Center for my end of residency presentation! I'll be reading from my latest book, Returning to My Father's Kitchen, as well as from my in-progress novel about female friendship titled Marian & Anja, which I've been working on as a Marguerite & Lamar Smith Fellow at the Carson McCullers Center. This event will be held at 6 pm at the Lummus Chapel inside the Historic Linwood Cemetery (721 Linwood Blvd, Columbus, GA). Refreshments will be served. More information can be found on the Carson McCullers Center website.

book coverage: interview on arts calling podcast

9/27/2025

It's my second time to go on The Arts Calling Podcast to talk about my work (the first time being in 2023, shortly after my first book, Love and Other Rituals, was released), and it was a real treat to witness myself and its host, Jaime Alejandro, grow as artists and thinkers since our last conversation. Jaime had particularly sharp questions about craft, pursuing a writing career across continents, being the daughter of a writer, and opening oneself up to the wonders of the world through one's art, and it's one of my favorite podcast interviews so far. Jaime has a gift for guiding intelligent conversations and you should definitely check out The Arts Calling Podcast through this link or on your favorite podcast app (Apple, Spotify, YouTube, etc).

book coverage: los angeles public library's reading list for filipino-american history month

9/23/2025

Many thanks to the good people at the Los Angeles Public Library for including Returning to My Father's Kitchen in their annual roundup for Filipino-American History Month! They have one copy of my book (that no one has checked out yet lol) and I hope this leads to someone borrowing it! Find the full reading list here.

writer-in-residence at the carson mccullers center

9/11/2025

Spending the fall of 2025 in a very special place. More about that here.

book coverage: review on rappler, book excerpt on newsroom nz

8/21/2025

Many thanks to LA Piluden, who wrote this thoughtful review of my book for Rappler in the Philippines after picking up a copy at a local bookstore in Baguio! Glad that it's reaching more readers in my hometown since this book is for you. Read the review here.

Newsroom in New Zealand also ran an excerpt from "I Do Not Know How it Is In Your Country," an essay about the racist Kiwi landlady from hell that's in the book. Apparently, it was a hit in the Land of the Long White Cloud--as a Filipino-Kiwi friend said, "Your story is one of the worst landlord stories I've read." To know what I'm talking about, you can read that excerpt here.

book coverage: 5 questions with liminal australia

7/17/2025

Heaps of thanks to Cher Tan of Liminal in Australia for the lovely interview about my book! You can read it here.

"returning to my father's kitchen" a reading revolution pick for july

7/13/2025

I owe a debt of gratitude to Honour Zhu of the Auckland City Libraries in New Zealand for connecting me with Kate Middleton, the superhuman librarian who runs The Reading Revolution, a wonderful literary nonprofit that promotes shared reading in public libraries, aged care homes, immigrant communities, and at-risk groups across New Zealand. Thanks to Kate, my latest book has been included in their Aotearoa Literary Hub series, and is their featured book for July. This is the second time they've taken up a book I've authored, and I'm honored to be considered a New Zealand author even if I sometimes hesitate to use that title--I only lived in Aotearoa for three years as a graduate student, and I haven't been back in years. However, I've written extensively about the Filipino immigrant experience in Aotearoa, and I'm heartened that my stories and essays are reaching a wider audience in the country thanks to Kate Middleton and the hardworking "reader leaders" of The Reading Revolution. We will be ending the month with a zoom event on July 30, 7 pm New Zealand Time, and this event is free and open to the public. For more details, click here.

book coverage: listen & be heard

6/27/2025

I previously shared the raw YouTube recording of this interview, and now here's the full episode of Listen & Be Heard featuring my conversation with Tony Robles alongside other artists and writers. Click here to listen to it online or on your favorite podcast platform.

book coverage: conversation with colorado review

6/26/2025

It was an acceptance of one of my essays by Colorado Review that encouraged me to submit my essay collection to publishers in the United States, and I am grateful once again for their support with their recent interview about the essay they published, and the book that grew from it. Read the full interview here.

panayam sa panitikan panel with likhaan: up institute of creative writing

6/20/2025

Thank you to the Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing for inviting me to be on a panel featuring Filipino women writers with recently published books! This will take place on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, and it will be a trip down memory lane as I haven't visited my undergraduate university in more than a decade. More information here.