How I Became a Writer

How I Became a Writer
Essays by Filipino and Filipino American Writers
Edited by CECILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD

How I Become a Writer: Essays by Filipino and Filipino American Writers, edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, features 22 personal stories by writers of diverse backgrounds, each reflecting on how writing has shaped their lives. Here, writing becomes more than
just a creative process—not merely a way to revisit memories, capture moments of empowerment and transformation, or make sense of the world—but also a mess of self-discovery. Indeed, some write to remember. To preserve. To heal. To reimagine the past with the wisdom of the present. This book alters voices as a guiding light, illuminating the many paths writers take before they are able to bravely face the empty page and pour out their being.
This book is for those curious about how writers became who they are. A heartfelt hint and hope–that one might find clarity in the haze of the soul through language, that one might have the chance to discover their voice and be inspired to listen to it and to be led by it.

REVIEWS:
“How I Become a Writer: Essays by Filipino and Filipino American Writers offers intimate, fine-grained accounts in the making of what constitutes contemporary Philippine literature, provided by a remarkable set of Filipino writers in the Philippines and abroad. It is a book to be treasured”
—    Resil B. Mojares, Philippine National Artist for Literature

“A most engaging collection of essays from among our best writers today! Recollections, reflections on their personal journeys on the road to becoming writers, these essays dig into their heavy ‘bag of memories’—as children, listening to storytellers in the family; in school discovering old and new worlds and people in books, and growing in their passion for reading. Writing becomes inevitable, even for one writer, it is neither “accidental nor entirely deliberate” but more serendipitous. Formal writing programs for some, learning from ‘hands-on experience’ for others, help to hone their craft, but there had already been the idea that would become the desire to write. That one could also ‘earn a living’ through writing was to have the best of both worlds. Even as some of these writers give us detailed accounts of their poetics, writing remains a lifelong adventure for all.”
—    Thelma E. Arambulo, Writer, Literary Studies Scholar, and former UP chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature

“How somebody becomes a writer is a curious thing: ‘Never,’ at first, for Merlie Alunan, ‘a writing nook’ for Caroline Hau, ‘as a record’ for Elmer Omar Pizo, ‘as a piece of lined yellow paper’ for Hope Sabanpan-Yu. The writers assembled for this series have generously shared how it all began for them, and all have led to the realization of a writer’s life. Cecilia Brainard, whose gift of bringing people together has proven our reward, offers a rare invitation to look inside how writers from Linda Ty-Casper to Butch Dalisay have found their words and their courage and what, in so many words, make the beginnings of a meaningful life in writing.”
—    Mara Coson, Publisher, Exploding Galaxies

Publisher: Vibal Foundation, Inc.
Imprint: World Nonfictions
Editor-at Large: Charlie Samuya Veric
Size: 6 x 9 inches
Number of pages: 208
Available: Softbound

About the Editor
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is an award-winning author and editor of over 22 books. She has written three novels. When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (1999, 2019), Magdalena (2011, 2016), and The Newspaper Widow (2017, 2021). Her Selected Short Stories (2021) won the 40th National Book Award and the Cirilo Bautista Prize for Best Book of Short Fiction in English, and Growing Up Filipino 3: New Stories for Young Adults (2022) was a finalist for Best Anthology in English at the 41st National Book Award. Her work has been translated into several languages, including Turkish, Finnish, Greek, and Japanese.
She has received an Outstanding Individual Award from Cebu, Philippines—her birthplace—a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Brody Arts Fund grant, and several travel grants from the US Embassy, among others.
She has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC), California State Summer School for the Arts, and the Writers' Program at UCLA Extension. She has served as an executive board member and officer of Poets, Essayists, and Novelists (PENI), Pacific Asian American Women Writers West (PAAWWW), Arts and Letters at California State University, Los Angeles, and Philippine American Women Writers and Artists (PAWWA).
She also runs a small press, Philippine American Literary
House (PALH), which publishes select Filipino and Filipino American books.
Her official website is https.//ceciliabrainard.com.