Romance from Manila (Brisbane Writers Festival 2022 session, May 7)
I have a session at the Brisbane Writers Festival with Jodi McAlister and Kat Mayo, on May 7, details and registration page here. It’s called ”Romance from Manila” and I’m excited, because—if you’ve been following this blog forever—it does seem like we’re doing and have done a lot from here. Granted most of it comes out of what happens when you try to be resourceful when you have no institutional support but anyway! LOL. If we can do it, surely others can too.
I appreciate being able to talk about this in an international panel, like the time we did that in Brunei, because I get to think about the factors that make our activities easier or harder to replicate in other settings. If the goal is more books, what’s preventing that from happening? In “Manila” (and I mean Filipinos really, no matter where they happen to be), we’ve been able to make books happen by setting up all the things that romanceclass has become. We still need a whole lot of things so that the creative environment here will be better for romance authors, but if the conversation is about forming communities to address gaps in a genre then I have ideas. Lots.
My participation will be via livestream, so I will not actually/physically be in Australia in May. The date for the festival is just too close to May 9, a very important election here. Thankful that the livestream option was offered, so I get to do this and vote too. (I am voting for Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan, just wanted to share! The way I share this information on social media daily. But it’s very important.)
I’m excited for the session! See you at Brisbane Writers Festival!
