Sunday, April 28, 2024
7:00 AM |
Presenting the First Duma LitFest
This has been a long time dream.
A few years ago, the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center, of which I am the founding director, launched a one-day literary festival at the Silliman Library, because we had this blessing of having as visitors several well-known Filipino-American writers visiting Dumaguete for the first time—and they wanted to do some literary event. We designed that single-day literary fest with them, and it was such a huge success, we ultimately wondered: what if we could do a full-fledged one?
It took a long time, but here we are: we are presenting the First Dumaguete Literary Festival, which began last Friday, April 26, and will continue on today, April 28, with a culminating event celebrating Nick Joaquin on the evening of April 30. The venue is 58 EJ Blanco Drive.
The Buglas Writers Guild and Libraria Books are together spearheading this launch of the Dumaguete Literary Festival. I am co-directing the whole thing with Gayle Acar, the entrepreneur behind Libraria Books. Our organizing partners include the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI] of Negros Oriental, Arts + Design Collective Dumaguete, Dumaguete City Tourism Office, National Museum of the Philippines Dumaguete, Back Pack Solutions, the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center, the Silliman University Culture and Arts Council, and Silliman University. The three-day literary event, the first of its kind in Negros Oriental, is in celebration of National Literature Month this April.
The event features many local writers and literature lovers, but we are also bringing in writers of national renown, including Dean Francis Alfar, Marjorie Evasco, Nikki Alfar, Sarge Lacuesta, Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta, Claire Betita de Guzman, Mina Esguerra, Jay Ignacio, Ren Ren Galeno, Johanna Michelle Lim, Rocky Nicor, and others. Many of the panels feature Silliman writers and literature faculty, as well as writers from Siquijor and Negros Occidental, with talks ranging from examining the place of Philippine literature in the school curriculum to examining the writing in the various genres like the romace novel and speculative fiction. The event also features a zine fest and a literary/artistic bazaar.
We began earlier in the last week of April by holding a Flower Ceremony for the 105th Birth Anniversary of National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo, organized by the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center, at the Dumaguete Memorial Park last April 22.
Then we opened Ang Pagdakop sa Damgo: An Exhibit of Dumaguete Children’s Literature National Museum of the Philippines—Dumaguete, which feature Hersley-Ven Casero’s art for my children’s book The Great Little Hunter, courtesy of MUGNA Gallery. The exhibit also features Libraria’s Imaginarium, consisting of multimedia works by local artists that invite them to render artistically their idea of book fantasy.
Last Friday, April 26, we opened our first full day of the literary festival with messages from Nimfa Virtucio of DTI Negros Oriental and Lady Flor Partosa of the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center, with a fantastic storytelling presentation by Nicky Dumapit. I also gave an opening message on creative cities, laying down our goal of making Dumaguete a UNESCO City of Literature.
For our first day, our panels included “Writing Dumaguete and Negros Oriental¬,” with Bais writer Rolin Migyuel Obina, Bayawan writer Dara Tumaca-Ramos, and yours truly, moderated by Pia Villareal; “Looking for Philippine Literature in the School Curriculum,” with Kaycee Melon, and Hellene Piñero, moderated by Lady Flor Partosa-Koenig; “The Penguin Random House Hour,” with Maryanne Moll, Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta, and Sarge Lacuesta,, moderated by Claire Betita de Guzman; and “The Place of the Palanca and Other Literary Awards in Philippine Literature,” with Keisiah Dawn Tiaoson and yours truly, moderated by Gina Fontejon-Bonior. Novelist Dean Francis Alfar gave a keynote talk on “The Future of Literature,” where he pondered about recent survey by the National Book Development Board, which show a steep decline of adult readership in the country. We ended the day with The Literary Pechakucha, moderated by Renz Torres, which featured Katinka Visitacion on a fast talk on writing about Bacolod, Cil Flores on creating visual arts characters, Jireh Catacutan on writing a play, Matthew Yasi on organizing literary clubs, Leah Navarro on making notebooks, and Alyana Marie Aguja on editing a literary folio. A screening of Dumaguete short films curated by Lutas Film Festival capped Day 1.
On Saturday, April 27, we began our second day with “Songs and Storytelling: Julia and the Music of Light,” featuring Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez and the Silliman University Campus Choristers. Dr. Suarez read from her children’s book, accompanied by incidental music rendered by the choir. Our panels for the day included “The Other Side of Negros,” with Ines Bautista-Yao and Rocky Nicor, moderated by Katinka Visitacion; “Readers Talk Back,” with Annabelle Adriano, Rina Hill, and Albertha Lachmi Obut, moderated by Aaron James Jalalon; “Poetry in a Time of Crisis,” with Marjorie Evasco, Mookie Katigbak Lacuesta and Angela Fabunan, moderated by Lyde Gerard Villanueva; “Literature and Social Media,” with Danielle Gaston and F. Jordan Carnice, moderated by Ronelyn Faith Vailoces-No; and “Siquijor Rising—Literature from Isla del Fuego,” with Shane Jay Fabugais, Leo Mamicpic, and Jazzy Lyle Sarmiento Samson, moderated by Moses Joshua Atega.
We also had parallel sessions for kids and the young at heart, with an all-afternoon slate of songs, stories, and crafts for kids. It featured the music of Gino Misa, Gayle Acar, April Misa, and Maria Elcon Cabanag Kleine Koerkamp; the storytelling prowess of Joan “Tita Doc” Cordova, Ines Bautista-Yao, Georgina Camus, and Reya Grace Hinaut; and the art workshops of Sharon Dadang-Rafols and Susan Canoy. It ended with a dramatic presentation of my children’s book, The Great Little Hunter, featuring D Salag Collective and Youth Advocates for Theatre Arts [YATTA]—a singular event that truly made the book come alive.
Why are we doing this? Because it is time to host something of this sort in Dumaguete. The city has always been considered by many writers as Philippine literature’s “hometown.” It hosts, after all, the oldest—and continuing—creative writing workshop in Asia, which has molded many generations of Filipino writers. It was home to the late National Artist for Literature Edith Lopez Tiempo and the late National Artist for Cinema Eddie Romero. As a setting, it has inspired many literary works, from novels to poetry, from essays to plays. And it continues to be home to many notable authors and artists. A literary festival celebrating this literary heritage, and embracing the realities of the modern world and the place of the creative in it, is a fitting development for this future City of Literature.
We also hope to develop the event to be international in scope in the future.
We have dubbed the first edition of Duma LitFest to be “Celebrating Literature, Dumaguete-Style,” aiming in our way to showcase the riches and idiosyncracies and traditions of Dumagueteños. This is the reason why we have deigned to pick up our guests from the airport and the pier not with a van but with a familiar Dumaguete tricycle. [Although we do have a van at our disposal.] This is the reason why we sent out missives to our panelists and moderators urging them to dress up in “Dumaguete summer style”—shirt, shorts, and tsinelas—not just to withstand the heat, but also to do away with the frills and formalities of bigger festivals. And this is the reason why we have chosen, as venue, not a mall but a heritage house on 58 EJ Blanco Drive. This is the home of Arts + Design Collective Dumaguete, which has become a creative hub for many local artists and designers as well as writers and entrepreneurs. It is an old house of fascinating nooks and crannies, and is perfect for how we envisioned the first literary festival of Dumaguete to be: exactly like the city itself—small, thriving with creative ferment, significant, and unapologetically uncommercial. [The hub also has a bookstore, a Vietnamese restaurant, a music studio, several artist studios, an art shop, a fermented food snack bar, and a store selling organic goods.]
The first Duma LitFest is also in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Charter of Dumaguete.
Here’s the rest of our events this Sunday, our last day…
1 PM – 1:50 PM
Panel 10: Writing the Romance Novel
With Mina V. Esguerra and Georgette Gonzales [thru Zoom], moderated by Beryl Andrea Delicana
Venue: The Sala, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
2 PM – 2:50 PM
Panel 11: Writing Comics with Komiket
With Jay Philip Ignacio and Ren Ren Galeno, moderated by Amiel Lopez
Venue: The Sala, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
3 PM – 3:50 PM
Panel 12: Writing Speculative Fiction
With Dean Francis Alfar, Nikki Alfar, and Ian Rosales Casocot, moderated by Tara De Leon
Venue: The Sala, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
4 PM – 4:50 PM
Panel 13: Writing from the Regions
With Maryanne Moll, Johanna Michelle Lim, and Lendz Barinque, moderated by John Rubio
Venue: The Sala, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
5 PM – 5:50 PM
Author’s Talk: How I Became an Amazon Writer
With Mitos Suson, moderated by Patch Puengan
Venue: The Sala, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
6 PM – 6:50 PM
Panel 14: The Business of Literature
With Sarge Lacuesta, Gayle Acar, Danah Fortunato, and Anton Gabila, moderated by Lea Sicat-Reyes
Venue: The Sala, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
7:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Turning the Chapter: A Closing Program
Venue: The Courtyard, 58 EJ Blanco Drive
7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Spoken Word and Poetry Open Mic
Organized by Yudi Santillan III
And finally, on Tuesday, April 30, we will stage May Day Eve: A Night With Nick Joaquin, also at the same venue. This is our real culminating event. It will feature the blues and jazz of Trio Bluesette, a talk on Nick Joaquin by yours truly, a screening of Lamberto Avellana’s Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, a reading of the poetry of Nick Joaquin featuring Neve-Rienne Fuentes, Bret Ybañez, River Ketnirattana, Drew Stronk, Ysh Zapanta, Onna Quizo, Merl Putong, Keian Encarguez, Anya Icao, Mayumi Maghuyop, and Jecho Ponce. And it will end with a reading of Nick Joaquin’s iconic short story “May Day Eve,” with narration by Mohammad Malik, and dance interpretation by Cheenee Limuaco and Dance in Motion.
Celebrate literature with us.
Look at this very literary ramen table: Nikki Alfar, Dean Francis Alfar, Renz Torres, Mookie Katigbak Lacuesta, Sarge Lacuesta, Mina V. Esguerra, and Maryanne Moll! Night of Day 2 of the Dumaguete Literary Festival!
Labels: art and culture, dumaguete, negros, philippine literature, silliman
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 184.
Labels: philippine literature, poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
As I went through the day today, there was hardly anyone I met who didn’t grumble about how hot it was. Air-conditioning was powerless even. The heat really was astounding today. But my day was packed, and around nightfall, after the exhibition opening, I suddenly just felt an entire planet of tiredness descend on me. Then the headache began. I’m subscribing all this to the heat.Labels: life, weather
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Monday, April 22, 2024
7:00 PM |
For Edith Tiempo on Her 105th Birth Anniversary
Today, April 22, to celebrate the 105th birth anniversary of the National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo, the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center of Silliman University sponsored a flower ceremony at the Dumaguete Memorial Park, where Dr. Tiempo and husband Edilberto K. Tiempo were remembered through testimony and poetry. The event was also sponsored by the Dumaguete City Tourism Office. This marks the soft start of the Dumaguete Literary Festival, which opens on APRIL 26, Friday at 58 EJ Blanco Drive.
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Life throws you punches, the grind can be backbreaking, and doubts will forever confound and dishearten. But thank God for friends who believe in what you're doing. They are the best kinds of people.Labels: friends, life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 183.
Labels: philippine literature, poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Saturday, April 13, 2024
11:05 PM |
Natto, We Meet Again
So, when I lived in Japan 26 years ago I encountered
natto for the first time. It is staple breakfast food for many Japanese but for me it was a horrific encounter. I haaaated it—and unfortunately it has stuck in my mind as probably my least favorite food of all time.
But over the years I’ve always wondered:
what if I was just remembering it wrong? I was 21 in 1997, after all, and probably didn’t know what was good or
oishii.
So tonight, after 26 years, I dared to try again this dish of fermented soy beans. Just to see.
And yes, I still don’t like it, hahaha. Honestly, my loss.
Labels: food, japan, life
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
9:57 PM |
All the Gay Boys They Awakened...
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 182.
This is in celebration of National Literature Month and also National Food Month!
Labels: food, national food month, philippine literature, poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Thursday, April 04, 2024
10:00 PM |
A Literary Feast in Dumaguete!
Celebrate National Literature Month with us with a series of events this April, culminating in the first ever Duma LitFest! The literary festival, slated on 26-28 APRIL 2024, will be a three-day event full of literary panels, readings, performances, and screenings. Everyone is welcome! Full schedule to be unveiled soon! Follow us on FB at
Dumaguete Literary Festival and on IG at @dumalitfest.
Labels: dumaguete, dumalitfest, philippine literature
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 181.
Labels: philippine literature, poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Tuesday, April 02, 2024
Most countries have standardized naming conventions [some even have regulations controlling the creation of names, like Japan]. But the Philippines is something else, no? Certainly, we have standard names that spring from local, or Spanish, or American derivations — but a quick look at contemporary name lists is always a revelation. It's mostly a postmodern mishmash of everything, including pop culture and random letters, and intentional misspellings of standard names. Kemyruth Jimenez? Nicki Minaj Montes? Xyzy Gomia? Elijah Yllys Garcia? Xybelle Flores? Maningning or Irene or Epefania could never. What's the strangest name of a Pinoy you know?
Labels: names, philippine culture
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 180.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Friday, March 22, 2024
1:42 PM |
Almost There!
This is ready to go to my copyeditor! It is a phone book.
Labels: dumaguete, history, literature, negros, philippine literature, writers, writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Thursday, March 21, 2024
12:52 PM |
Happy World Poetry Day!
I rarely share poems I’ve written — this is really not my genre, although Cesar Aquino once blurbed my personal anthology Bamboo Girls by proclaiming me “a secret poet no more” — so here’s one I wrote back in 2021, when I was first dealing with ADHD in the middle of a raging pandemic. Never published this, or shared this publicly.
Labels: poetry, writing
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
7:00 AM |
Dumaguete in 1891.
This is the oldest photograph I’ve ever sourced of Dumaguete. For the sake of transparency, I’ve edited the image a bit to enhance the details, and to make the photo into a square. The real photo is on the Dumaguete Tourism social media. [From the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan]
Labels: dumaguete, history, photography
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 179.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Sunday, March 17, 2024
11:51 AM |
The Great American Novels
The Atlantic just dropped their list of
The Great American Novels...
Goodness, I have only read
25 of these. Must really go back to serious reading. But happy for Jessica Hagedorn’s
Dogeaters making it. I read that book when I was studying in Japan at 21, and I loved it. [I lent it to a Finnish friend, and when she finished, she told me: “Now I understand you much better,”
hahaha.] But I’m perplexed with its inclusion in this list, given its “American-ness” conceit: that novel is very much about post-war Philippines. Carlos Bulosan’s
America is in the Heart feels like the better fit.
The list, and my reads thus far:
[✓]
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
[ ]
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (1925)
[ ]
The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein (1925)
[ ]
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather (1927)
[ ]
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (1929)
[ ]
Passing by Nella Larsen (1929)
[ ]
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)
[ ]
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936)
[ ]
Nightwood by Djuna Barnes (1936)
[ ]
East Goes West by Younghill Kang (1937)
[ ]
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
[ ]
U.S.A. by John Dos Passos (1937)
[ ]
Ask the Dust by John Fante (1939)
[ ]
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (1939)
[ ]
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West (1939)
[ ]
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
[ ]
Native Son by Richard Wright (1940)
[ ]
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (1940)
[ ]
A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell (1942)
[ ]
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren (1946)
[ ]
The Street by Ann Petry (1946)
[ ]
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes (1947)
[ ]
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford (1947)
[✓]
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (1951)
[✓]
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White (1952)
[ ]
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952)
[ ]
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
[ ]
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks (1953)
[ ]
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953)
[✓]
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
[✓]
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956)
[ ]
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious (1956)
[ ]
Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith (1957)
[ ]
No-No Boy by John Okada (1957)
[✓]
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
[✓]
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
[ ]
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
[✓]
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962)
[✓]
Another Country by James Baldwin (1962)
[ ]
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)
[✓]
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov (1962)
[ ]
The Zebra-Striped Hearse by Ross Macdonald (1962)
[✓]
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (1963)
[ ]
The Group by Mary McCarthy (1963)
[✓]
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (1966)
[ ]
A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter (1967)
[ ]
Couples by John Updike (1968)
[ ]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1968)
[ ]
Divorcing by Susan Taubes (1969)
[✓]
Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth (1969)
[ ]
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
[✓]
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (1970)
[ ]
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox (1970)
[ ]
Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion (1970)
[ ]
Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford (1972)
[ ]
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed (1972)
[ ]
Sula by Toni Morrison (1973)
[ ]
The Revolt of the Cockroach People by Oscar Zeta Acosta (1973)
[ ]
Oreo by Fran Ross (1974)
[ ]
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
[ ]
Winter in the Blood by James Welch (1974)
[ ]
Corregidora by Gayl Jones (1975)
[ ]
Speedboat by Renata Adler (1976)
[ ]
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)
[ ]
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977)
[✓]
A Contract With God by Will Eisner (1978)
[✓]
Dancer From the Dance by Andrew Holleran (1978)
[ ]
The Stand by Stephen King (1978)
[ ]
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979)
[ ]
The Dog of the South by Charles Portis (1979)
[✓]
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1980)
[ ]
The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara (1980)
[ ]
Little, Big: Or, the Fairies’ Parliament by John Crowley (1981)
[ ]
Oxherding Tale by Charles Johnson (1982)
[ ]
Machine Dreams by Jayne Anne Phillips (1984)
[ ]
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (1985)
[ ]
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1986)
[✓]
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986)
[ ]
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)
[ ]
Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (1987)
[ ]
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn (1989)
[ ]
Tripmaster Monkey by Maxine Hong Kingston (1989)
[✓]
Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn (1990)
[✓]
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)
[ ]
How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez (1991)
[ ]
Mating by Norman Rush (1991)
[ ]
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison (1992)
[✓]
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)
[ ]
So Far From God by Ana Castillo (1993)
[ ]
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (1993)
[ ]
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (1993)
[ ]
Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee (1995)
[ ]
Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth (1995)
[ ]
Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena María Viramontes (1995)
[ ]
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (1996)
[ ]
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus (1997)
[ ]
Underworld by Don DeLillo (1997)
[ ]
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead (1999)
[ ]
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates (2000)
[ ]
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (2000)
[ ]
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)
[✓]
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt (2000)
[ ]
The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams (2000)
[ ]
Erasure by Percival Everett (2001)
[ ]
I, the Divine by Rabih Alameddine (2001)
[✓]
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001)
[ ]
Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros (2002)
[ ]
Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling (2002)
[ ]
The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart (2002)
[✓]
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003)
[ ]
Veronica by Mary Gaitskill (2005)
[✓]
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2007)
[ ]
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2010)
[ ]
I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita (2010)
[ ]
Open City by Teju Cole (2011)
[ ]
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2011)
[ ]
The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012)
[ ]
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)
[ ]
Nevada by Imogen Binnie (2013)
[ ]
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (2014)
[ ]
Family Life by Akhil Sharma (2014)
[ ]
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (2015)
[ ]
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)
[ ]
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (2015)
[ ]
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015)
[ ]
Amiable With Big Teeth by Claude McKay (2017)
[ ]
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (2017)
[ ]
Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (2018)
[ ]
Severance by Ling Ma (2018)
[ ]
There There by Tommy Orange (2018)
[ ]
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (2019)
[ ]
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (2019)
[ ]
The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (2019)
[ ]
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (2021)
[ ]
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (2021)
[ ]
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey (2023)
Labels: books, list, philippine literature, reading
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Thursday, March 14, 2024
4:20 PM |
Thinking Clearly
I’m going back to meds starting today. Been having enormous difficulty concentrating since December, and my usual tricks to go around the ADHD have not been working. I honestly didn’t want to go back to taking psychotropic meds, but I feel now that I do need to—for the sake of work. But this time around, I’ll take care not to get too entangled with the meds.
But I’ve forgetten this is how a normal brain works:
without noise, without fogging. Today, while delivering my lectures, I knew exactly what to say, what words to use, what points to make. The ability to concentrate without trying too hard is a gift most neurotypical people take for granted. I envy this of them. The confidence that springs from raw brainpower is like no other. The world clears up before you, and you are able to breathe a little easier.
I listen better, I read better, I speak better.Labels: life, mental health
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
7:00 AM |
Poetry Wednesday, No. 178.
Labels: poetry
[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich
GO TO OLDER POSTS
