Transatlantic Agency is proud to celebrate a few of our Filipinx authors this Filipino Heritage Month (US)!
October 1992 was the first time that Filipino American History Month (FAHM) was celebrated in the United States – a year after FANHS passed a proclamation (spearheaded by Fred Cordova). Since then, FAHM has been celebrated annually all over the country – with initiatives by FANHS chapters, local community nonprofit groups, government organizations, and college student organizations. In 2009, U.S. Congress declared October as FAHM, and in 2015, President Obama celebrated the first FAHM at the White House.
It is also important to recognize the many ways that Filipino Americans have created spaces and programs to better enhance our communities – hence maintaining long-lasting legacies for future generations. In an effort to do so, we are proud to share a few of our Filipinx authors!
Read on for more:
- Tessa Barbosa writes software help by day, and YA fantasy novels by night. Her short fiction (as T.S. Bazelli) has appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, as well as anthologies by Exile Editions, Graveside Tales, and Innsmouth Free Press. She currently lives on the rainy west coast of Canada with her family. When she’s not at the keyboard, she’s making messes in the kitchen or sewing things. Tessa is represented by Léonicka Valcius.
- Kawika Guillermo is a story maker whose personal history flows through many sites around and within the Pacific. His first novel, Stamped: an anti-travel novel, won the 2020 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Fiction. His second novel, All Flowers Bloom, won the 2021 Reviewers Choice Gold Award for Best Novel. He has published over forty short stories in journals like The Cimarron Review, Feminist Studies, The Hawai’i Pacific Review, Tayo, Smokelong Quarterly, and decomp journal, where he currently serves as the Managing Editor.
Under his patrilineal/legal name, Chris Patterson, he is an Assistant Professor in the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia and is the author of the non-fiction books Transitive Cultures: Anglophone Literature of the Transpacific (Rutgers University Press, 2018), and Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games (New York University Press, 2020).
Kawika identifies as queer, gender fluid, and Filipino/Chinese/Hawaiian/white settler. Kawika is the name intended for him by his mother, and Guillermo is her maiden name. Earlier this fall, he published Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir with Duke University Press. He is currently at work on Of Floating Isles: essays on video games, a mix of personal and cultural criticism essays about anarchy and belonging through the lens of gaming. Kawika is represented by Laura Cameron.
- Catherine Hernandez (she/her) is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She is a proud queer woman who is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian descent and married into the Navajo Nation. Her first novel, SCARBOROUGH, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript; was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards, the Evergreen Forest of Reading Award, the Edmund White Award, and the Trillium Book Award; and a finalist for Canada Reads 2022.
She has written the critically acclaimed plays Singkil, The Femme Playlist and Eating with Lola and the children’s books M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book and I Promise. Her second novel, CROSSHAIRS, published simultaneously in Canada and the US and the UK, was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award and made the CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction, NOW Magazine’s 10 Best Books, Indigo Best Book, Audible Best Audiobooks and NBC 20 Best LGBTQ Books list of 2020. Her third children’s book, WHERE DO YOUR FEELINGS LIVE? which is a guide for kids living through these scary times, has been commissioned by HarperCollins Canada and will be published in winter 2022. Catherine is represented by Samantha Haywood.
- Lang Johnson worked in IT for ten years, where she spent her lunch breaks reading fantasy and crafting stories on scraps of paper and stuffing them in her cubicle drawer. When her drawer became dangerously close to overflowing, Lang took a leap of faith and left her job to pursue a career in writing.
She started as a contributing writer for HappyGirl Yoga while running her own health and wellness blog, Big Bodhi Girl. Looking to expand her skills, Lang took worldbuilding courses which inspired her to create a story based on her Filipino indigenous culture. She recently completed her first fantasy romance and is currently working on two more fantasy novels. When Lang isn’t typing away at her desk, she enjoys hiking and globetrotting with her husband, cuddling her three fur-babies, and riding her motorcycle. Lang is jointly represented by Léonicka Valcius and Samantha Haywood.
- Ken Lamug is an author/illustrator based in Las Vegas, Nevada. As a child, he made comics and books from scraps of used copy paper. Then, Ken stopped drawing for the longest time when his entire family moved to the USA.
He finally got back to his creative roots and has been having loads of fun making books and comics for all-ages. His debut picture book “A Box Story” won the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, Literary Classics, Pinnacle Awards and the National Indie Excellence Book Awards. In 2014, he launched a Kickstarter campaign which funded the all-ages graphic adventure book, “The Tall Tales of Talbot Toluca.” Ken’s most recent books include the macabre children’s fairytale, “The Stumps of Flattop Hill” (One Peace Books) and the parenting parody book, “HURTS LIKE A MOTHER” (Doubleday). Ken is represented by Andrea Cascardi .
- Anthony Christian Ocampo, Ph.D. is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. He earned a BA and MA degree from Stanford University and his MA and PhD from UCLA. Anthony is represented by Amanda Orozco.
- Cherry Lou Sy is a writer/playwright/performer and aspiring TV writer originally from the Philippines of Chinese and Filipino heritage. Currently based in Lenapehoking aka Brooklyn, New York, she received BA at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study with magna cum laude honors and attended Brooklyn College’s MA in English Literature as well as the MFA in Playwriting program under Mac Wellman and Erin Courtney as a Kimberley Phillips-Boehm Fellow.
She is one of the few Adjunct Lecturers to receive a rare distinction of the Claire Tow ’52 Excellence in Teaching Award for her and her students’ work on promoting the need for an Asian American Pacific Islander Studies at CUNY’s Brooklyn College. She is also a proud teaching artist for PEN America’s DREAMING Out Loud facilitating creative writing classes for undocumented and formerly undocumented immigrants. She’s been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from VONA and Tin House among others and a finalist for way too many things to mention. She is also the Co-Artistic Director of the International Minor Feelings Trading Company (aka Trade Co) where third culture and non-dominant perspectives make the backbone of theatrical investigations. Her debut literary novel, GOOD GIRL, BEGGAR WOMAN, is a coming-of-age story about intergenerational fractures and forging an identity as a mixed-race immigrant daughter, for readers of Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi and America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo–it will be on offer soon. Cherry is represented by Amanda Orozco and Laura Cameron.
- Kimberly Ann Ramos tinkers with words 24/7, creating marketing content by night and diving into her fantasy worlds by day. Her favorite stories to read and write include mythology and fairytale retellings, filled with whimsical misadventures and grumpy old monsters.
Graduating from University of the Philippines with a BA in Political Science, decolonial narratives and socioeconomic discussions run alongside the magic in her writing. Her biggest wish is for kids to both enjoy and question what they read and learn. To escape from writing, she finds relaxation…by writing poetry, becoming part of the first ever Spoken Word workshop in the country. Born and raised in Manila, she developed superhero patience through traffic and the neighbors’ 2AM karaoke sessions. When not muttering dialogue and worldbuilding ideas to herself, she can be found fangirling over food, films, and languages. Kimberly is represented by Amanda Orozco and Noelle Falcis Math.
- Vera Blossom is a proud Filipina American and transfemme monster. She was born in the Bay Area, forged in Las Vegas, and currently lives in Chicago. Her work explores desire, pleasure, gender, and death with explicit vulgarity and frank humor. She writes the steamy, confessional newsletter HOW TO FUCK LIKE A GIRL, and co-founded SNACK REPORT, a food blog focused on rituals, feelings, and friendship. She is very serious about playing around.
In 2021, she helped produce seasons 1 and 2 of Black Mountain Radio, an artist-driven, community-focused audio project published in collaboration with Black Mountain Institute and the Believer magazine. In 2022 she was associate producer on Season 2 of The Anti-Trans Hate Machine which focused on the disinformation ecosystem constructed by the Christian Nationalist movement. She is a co-owner of Your Magic, a mystical tech company that produced a tarot-centric Spotify Original podcast of the same name. In 2022, she read her work as part of the Sister Spit 25th anniversary reunion tour. In 2023, she was selected as an Ann Friedman Weekly Fellow and a PEN America Emerging Voice. Vera is represented by Laura Cameron and Amanda Orozco.