Jose Carillo's Forum

NOTABLE WORKS BY OUR VERY OWN

This page features outstanding works of Filipino writers in English, both past and present. Whenever the need or opportunity arises, a notable work—whether essay, speech, short story, poetry, play, or excerpt from a novel—will be presented here either in its full text or through a link to a website that carries it.

Enjoy the offerings of this series and learn from their felicitous use of the English language!

Two novelists explore family, national identity, and homeland

In its October 8, 2010 issue, The New York Times featured in its “Paper Cuts” book blogs section an e-mail conversation between Miguel Syjuco, the Filipino author of the Asian Man Prize-winning novel Ilustrado, and Times books blogger Jennifer B. McDonald. The interview came out in conjunction with Syjuco’s debut as a reviewer for the Times’ Book Review section, during which he reviewed the novel How to Read the Air by the award-winning Ethiopian-American writer Dinaw Mengestu. Both Syjuco and Mengestu use their respective immigrant experience to explore the themes of family, homeland, politics, and identity.

Illustrado How to Read the Air
Miguel Syjuco Mengestu

Read the Times’ Reviewer Spotlight on Miguel Syjuco now!

Read Miguel Syjuco’s review of Dinaw Mengestu’s How to Read the Air now!

Read the earlier review in the Forum of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado now!

ABOUT DINAW MENGESTU:

Dinaw Mengestu is the author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, a Los Angeles Times bestseller and Seattle Reads pick of 2008, as well the recently published novel How To Read the Air. He was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1978. In 1980, he immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister, joining his father, who had fled Ethiopia during the Red Terror. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University’s MFA program in fiction and the recipient of a 2006 fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a 5 Under 35 Award from the National Book Foundation in 2007. He has written for Rolling Stone and Harper's, among other publications. He lives in New York City.

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