I have a new essay about the invisible Filipino maids of Crazy Rich Asians up on SBS Life! I'm so glad that this essay did well online (thanks to Filipinos who shared it), since it's an essay I'm quite proud of. 

What bothered me, however, was how the Filipino maids in the movie merely served to signify their masters’ outrageous (and oftentimes celebrated) wealth with their quiet, unobtrusive presence, and were otherwise rendered invisible, both by the camera and by the script.

You can read the piece in its entirety here. 

Since it's Father's Day on September 2 in Australia and New Zealand, I wrote about my late father and a teddy bear named Yadi we both loved for SBS Life. It's the second essay I wrote for the emerging Asian-Australian emerging writers series of SBS Life, and it's a piece I'm particularly proud of. Read it here. 

I recently had the opportunity to write about my "Get Out" experience with my first landlady in New Zealand for SBS Life in Australia. Many international students in New Zealand are forced to put up with exploitation and racism from their landlords just to keep a roof over their heads, and much of the bullying they experience takes place behind closed doors. Having experienced this first-hand, I felt I had to write this piece, and I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to do so. I would like to thank Candice Chung for being a great editor to work with, as well as the team behind SBS. You can read the full article here. 

I have a new essay/short memoir in the latest volume of Aotearotica, New Zealand's journal of erotic literature and art. Writing this essay, I wanted to explore how being exiled from one's homeland makes every encounter all the more intimate and comforting. This is the very first prose piece I've ever written that's told backwards (from experience to innocence), and would love to know if the structure actually works. This is also my first publication after successfully defending my PhD dissertation in Creative Writing (yay, I'm a Doctor now!) which makes it all the more celebratory for me. 

I haven't received my copy in the mail yet, but every volume of Aotearotica that I own is beautiful, with great writing alongside outstanding artwork, and I'm sure this latest volume won't disappoint. It's available New Zealand bookshops (I'm sure VicBooks has it) as well as from their online shop. 

The third and final installment of my novella about young Filipinos falling in love in New Zealand, "Leaving Auckland", is finally up on failbetter. I'm particularly proud of this story, and I'm happy that all of it is finally online. In this installment, Paolo contemplates the future while looking back on his past, and wonders where home truly is. Parts 1 and 2 are still available on failbetter​'s landing page, with Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. Thanks again to failbetter ​for giving it a good home, and for being so great to work with!

I'm pleased to share that the second installment of my novella, "Leaving Auckland", is up on failbetter. In this installment, two young Filipinos, Paolo and Maya, agree to meet in Wellington, and Paolo's past with a former flame begins to interfere with the life he wants to build with Maya. If you've enjoyed reading this novella thus far, watch out for the third and final installment which will be released on June 28! In the meantime, you can read the first installment here and the second installment here.  

I am thrilled to share that my novella about the Filipino immigrant experience in New Zealand, "Leaving Auckland", is currently being serialized on failbetter.com, with the first of three installments going live today. In this novella, two young Filipino immigrants meet in Auckland, fall in love, and are forced to confront their loneliness as their relationship deepens. This piece was a Top 25 finalist in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open in 2016, and I'm glad it has finally found a good home. Parts two and three are scheduled to go live on June 14 and 28, respectively, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, you can read Part one here.