
My essay, Becoming A Writer: The Silences We Write Against, which appeared in TAYO Literary Magazine's blog back in 2015, is on the Notable List of the Best American Essays of 2016, edited by Jonathan Franzen! Congratulations to my friends Wilfredo Pascual and Greg Marshall, who also have essays on the list. When I set out to write about my struggles with the Philippine Literary Establishment, I thought I was throwing away my literary career (at least in the Philippines, where I expected to make some enemies with what I wrote). I never expected to receive this amount of recognition for the finished product. I'd like to thank the editors of TAYO Literary Magazine who bravely published the piece, especially Melissa Sipin who invited me to write it. You can read the full essay in the link above, and you can find my name in the list below: