Monica Macansantos - News and Events

Monica Macansantos

Essay About Watching Ghost World In the Philippines For Electric Literature

1/24/2023

I'm delighted to share my latest for Electric Literature, an essay about how I connected with the movie Ghost World as a teenager in the Philippines, and how I saw myself and one of my high school best friends in its lead characters, Enid and Rebecca, played by Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannson. I wanted to write about how female friendships are important for young women of color seeking to forge a path of their own as artists, especially in a place like the Philippines that doesn't exactly serve as an encouraging environment for rebellion and creativity. Read the full essay here.

Review of 'Love and Other Rituals' In International Examiner

1/21/2023

Happy to share another lovely review of Love and Other Rituals, this time from Seattle's International Examiner! Here's the link to the full review; in Seattle, you can get my book from the Elliott Bay Book Company (because it's always better to support local businesses).

Interviewed By Grace Talusan For The Rumpus

1/10/2023

I am overjoyed to begin 2023 with an interview by the lovely Grace Talusan for The Rumpus about my debut story collection, Love and Other Rituals. We talked about how I depicted the Philippines I know, and not what white supremacy imagines it to be; communicating across cultural differences without compromising one's vision; and utilizing fiction to convey truth in a time of misinformation and historical revisionism in my home country. I cannot thank Grace Talusan enough for generously conducting this conversation, as well as Marisa Siegel and Elizabeth Gonzalez James for facilitating its publication in The Rumpus. Read our conversation here.

List Of Residencies To Apply for in 2023 for Electric Literature

1/1/2023

In case you're an artists' residency addict like me, or else have been meaning to apply for an artists' residency, I made this list for Electric Literature!

Interview With Jaime Alejandro on Arts Calling Podcast

12/23/2022

I am beyond honored to have been invited by Jaime Alejandro to appear on his amazing podcast about creatives and the creative process, Arts Calling! In this episode, we talked about my debut story collection, Love and Other Rituals, and my journey towards finding my voice and sense of home across several continents. Jaime is an amazing interviewer and I highly recommend his podcast, Arts Calling, which has a particular interest in featuring artists of color. You can listen to my episode here.

Love And Other Rituals Reviewed In the Philippine Star

11/22/2022

What an honor to see Love and Other Rituals being featured in Alfred A. Yuson's Kripotkin column, which appears every Monday in The Philippine Star's lifestyle section. This appeared in their November 21, 2022 print edition, and those living outside the Philippines can read Sir Krip's stunning review here.

Love and Other Rituals Reviewed In Meanjin

11/19/2022

What an honor to have my stories read with such closeness and depth! Read the full review here.

"Reconciliations" (Novel Excerpt) In Action, Spectacle

11/8/2022

I'm happy to share my ninth published excerpt from my novel, People We Trust, which appears in the latest issue of Action, Spectacle. Reading the excerpt (or any of the nine excerpts already published in literary journals) will show you that this is a novel about the traumas inflicted by the Marcos dictatorship on ordinary people, and how these traumas continued to linger, unaddressed, in Philippine society until the next authoritarian came along. Many thanks to Adam Day for selecting this excerpt for publication! I am honored to share this space with Brandon Taylor, Octavio Quintanilla, and other writers and artists I admire. Read my excerpt here and the rest of the issue here.

The Hopkins Review Presents: A Selection of Poems By Francis C. Macansantos

11/1/2022

To coincide with the publication of my essay, "My Father and W.B. Yeats", in the summer 2022 print issue of The Hopkins Review, a selection of my father's poems in English have been presented as an online feature on THR's website. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dora Malech, EIC of The Hopkins Review, for generously soliciting these poems, and for thoughtfully timing this feature on my father's birthday. It's one of the best gifts he has ever received. Read his selection of poetry here.

"The Grief Of Publishing A Book Without The Parent Who Inspired You" In Literary Hub

10/27/2022

For Literary Hub, I wrote a short essay about my own sadness over publishing my first book five years after my father's sudden passing. Included in this essay is an unpublished poem he wrote for me when I was a baby, in which he confronts his own mortality while contemplating my sleeping form. I feel like it's an essay we wrote together, which the title of this essay as it appears on Lit Hub somewhat belies. Read the essay here.