I am pleased as a pea to share my sixth (!) published excerpt from my novel, People We Trust, which appears in the latest annual issue of New Zealand's Turbine|Kapohau, my PhD alma mater's online literary journal. In this excerpt, a young revolutionary during the Marcos years in the Philippines navigates the complexities of her burgeoning friendship with the younger brother of her revolutionary husband, while continuing to keep her identity secret. I would like to thank Rose Wunrow and the rest of Turbine|Kapohau's editorial team for selecting my work. Two other New Zealand-Filipino writers, Kristene Cristobal and Hannah Amante, also have work in this issue. When I started my creative writing PhD at the Victoria University of Wellington back in 2015, I was the only Filipino in the workshop room, my supervisors were unfamiliar with Philippine Literature, and Filipino-Kiwi writing was unheard of, so truly we've come a long way from that. Last year another amazing Filipino-Kiwi writer, Mikee Sto-Domingo, had work in Turbine|Kapohau, so we're slowly making inroads in the NZ lit scene (and I hope we continue to do so). You can read my novel excerpt here. 

On December 4, 2020 (or December 5, early morning in the Philippines), I took part in About Place Journal​'s "Works of Resistance, Resilience" reading series, reading an excerpt from my essay, "Little Girls". I am happy that this pandemic has encouraged literary journals and organizations to explore alternative means of gathering writers to share their work (such as Zoom) so that people like me who live outside the U.S. can still participate these activities. A recording of the event was posted on YouTube.