My poem, “Elegy for the corridors“, can now be read online on the Philippines Free Press website.
Also, Paolo Chikiamco links us to this review of Alternative Alamat by Jaymee Goh:
ALTERNATIVE ALAMAT
OK, if you only read one anthology all year, please let this one be it. I’d like to have this one in hardcopy, actually. Anyway. There’re a few appendices talking about mythology and researching / recording mythology in the Philippines. I wish there also had been a glossary of the deities featured in the stories, but they’re major deities, and it really is a “For Flipinos” sort of anthology in this way.“Ana’s Little Pawnshop On Makiling St.”
This story is about Anagolay, now called Ana, told from the perspective of Eric, who finds himself employed by Ana in her little pawnshop, which she now runs, and sells the unclaimed things that appear in her closet. It’s a delightful magical realist sort of story, where the gods mingle with mortals, and Ana’s pawnshop is in the middle of a block owned by Mariang Makiling, another local goddess, who is now a stockholder. Ana doesn’t really need Eric around, but she gets a bit lonely, as gods probably would do, and so through Eric we get a glimpse into how the extraordinary meets the ordinary in different ways. Things come to a head when development happens. The story doesn’t really resolve itself, but there’s a bittersweet farewell, a gift that was foreshadowed. I just find this story utterly charming (“I’ve poured the nebulae here. They’ve been busy. Look how many stars they’ve made!”) and a wonderful start to the anthology in general. Re-reading it makes me smile.
Thank you for the kind words, Jaymee. :) Read more.
Eliza Victoria 