Monica Macansantos
Monica wrote a novel about the nature of complicity in Marcos-era Philippines, and a critical study of the Martial Law Novel.
PhD awarded 2018
Monica Macansantos was born and raised in the Philippines, and was a James A. Michener Fellow for Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her MFA in Fiction and Poetry in 2013. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, failbetter, The Masters Review, Day One, WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, Lunch Ticket, Anomaly, Vol.1 Brooklyn, and The Pantograph Punch, among other places.
Her essay, 'Becoming A Writer: The Silences We Write Against', was named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2016. Her story, 'Leaving Auckland', was a Finalist in the Summer 2016 Glimmer Train Fiction Open, and was subsequently serialised as a novella on the website failbetter.com (2018). Her story, 'Stopover', earned an Honorable Mention in the Winter 2013 Glimmer Train Fiction Open, and was published in Five Quarterly (2013) and in Hypertrophic Literary (2018). Her work has been recognised with residencies at Hedgebrook, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Centre for the Arts, the Storyknife Writers Retreat, the I-Park Foundation, and Moriumius. She is currently a Fiction Reader for the VIDA Review and a regular book reviewer for Colorado Review.
Monica writes: 'My novel, tentatively titled People We Trust, examines the lives of three young people who come of age during the early years of the Marcos dictatorship.
'In my accompanying critical study, I discussed novels about the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, paying particular attention to Ninotchka Rosca's State of War and Gina Apostol's Gun Dealers Daughter. I refer to fiction written about the Marcos dictatorship as "Martial Law Fiction", a term coined by Gerald T. Burns in his 1994 essay, "Philippine Martial Law Fiction: Phases in the Early Evolution of the Genre", to describe what he calls a genre of historical fiction written specifically about the Marcos years. For purposes of clarity, it is worth mentioning that "Martial Law" is a term used by journalists and scholars alike in the Philippines to refer to the Marcos years.'
Read more
- 'Stopover' (Five Quarterly)
- Excerpt from 'Stopover' (Longform Fiction)
- 'The Day I Was a Comfort Woman' (Your Impossible Voice - audio recording)
- 'The Cup of Knowing' (Quarterly Literary Review Singapore)
- The Masters Review 2012 , ed. Lauren Groff: 'The Feast of All Souls'
- The Fictioneer : 'Maricel'
- 100 Filipina Poets
- Impact: An Anthology of Short Memoirs : 'James'
- Poems in TAYO Literary Magazine, issue 5
- Essay in TAYO Literary Magazine, online edition, 31 May 2015: 'Becoming a writer - the silences we write against' ('Notable essay': Best American Essays of 2016, ed. Jonathan Franzen)
- 'Love and other rituals' (Thin Noon)
- 'Into Lightness' (Shirley Magazine)
- 'Playing with Dolls' (available as e-book on Kindle - originally published in Day One literary journal)
- To Be Free by Edilberto K. Tiempo reviewed by Monica Macansantos (Halo Halo, 2016)
- 'Leaving Auckland' finalist, Glimmer Train Fiction Open, 2016
- 'The gift of connection' (Takahē Magazine, issue 92, 2018)
- 'Leaving Auckland' part one, part two and part three (failbetter.com)
- 'My Get Out moment as an overseas student' (SBS website, 2018)
- 'To resist being unseen' (Another Chicago Magazine, October 2019)
- 'An Unexplained Kindness' (novel opening) in Anomaly Issue 30 (April 2020)
- 'The Power of a Vacant House' (essay) in Vol.1 Brooklyn (March 2020)
- 'The life-affirming words of Katherine Mansfield in a time of pandemic' (Pantograph Punch, June 2020)
- 'Returning to my father's kitchen' (Lunch Ticket, 2020)
- 'A Visit to General Lim Street' (excerpt from PhD novel) in Oyster River Pages, September 2020
- 'Little Girls' (essay) in About Place Journal, October 2020
- 'A Shared Stillness' (essay) in Colorado Review, Spring 2021.
- 'Revolutionaries' (novel extract) in About Place Journal, Spring 2021
- 'Inheritences' (novella from forthcoming story collection) in Your Impossible Voice, Spring 2021
- More articles and news on Monica Macansantos' website and Twitter