Let your mind expand with stories inspired by Philippine folklore, recovered from colonization and re-imagined in the diaspora.
Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly reads from her new young adult novel, Lalani of the Distant Sea, about a girl who leaves her island for a journey across the sea to a magical island with strange creatures. Yves Lamson debuts his novel Bodies of Water, about a lineage of Filipina women and healers who speak with water. Award-winning poet Barbara Jane Reyes, reads her poetry of mythic retellings in her collections, DIWATA, and the monstrous feminine Aswang in To Love As Aswang. Renee Macalino Rutledge will share her novel, The Hour of Daydreams, which delves into issues of marriage and identity while interpreting the way legends are born and stories passed on from one generation to the next. Reno Ursal will share his paranormal story Enlightenment of a Filipino-American student whose friendship with a Danang—a Filipino vampire—leads her into the underworld.

Join us for a conversation about the ways myth seeps into contemporary life, complicating clear divisions between the pre-colonial past and present.