Milflores Publishing’s latest release is a collection of modern wonder tales titled Tales of Fantasy and Enchantment.
Edited by prizewinning fictionist and essayist Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, the book brings together some of the most gifted young Filipino writers, in what the editor describes as “the more interesting performances of the modern tale in the country today.” They include modern fairy tales, reworked folk tales, refashioned legends, ghost stories, gothic tales, horror stories, futuristic fiction and fan fiction. The best part of the collection is that many of the stories are not just scary or marvelous, but funny.
Many of the contributing authors are familiar names. Vicente Garcia Groyon and FH Batacan are winners of the Carlos Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel. Prizewinning writers Dean Francis Alfar and Nikki Alfar edit the celebrated Philippine Speculative Fiction series. Marivi Soliven Blanco is the author of several best-selling Milflores essay collections. Tara FT Sering started Philippine chick lit. Ma. Romina M. Gonzalez, Cyan Abad-Jugo, Ian Rosales Casocot, Karl de Mesa, and Anna Sanchez have all published fiction collections and won their share of awards. Emil Flores, Gizela M. Gonzalez, Bj A. Patiño, Jose Claudio B. Guerrero, Natasha B. Gamalinda, Andrea L. Peterson, Carljoe Javier and Samantha Echavez have been published in other books and magazines, both local and foreign.
Most of these authors are UP alumni. Like the editor, Emil Flores, Butch Guerrero and Anna Sanchez are also teaching in the Dept. of English and Comparative Literature of the UP Diliman College of Arts and Letters. Guerrero is also deputy director of the UP Press. The rest were writing fellows in the UP National Writers’ Workshop conducted every year by the UP Institute of Creative Writing.
“These are contemporary fables which weave old legends and wonder tales with the new myths growing out of today’s popular culture,” says Hidalgo, who began writing and publishing her own modern tales in the early 90s with Tales for a Rainy Night and Where Only the Moon Rages.
The book’s cover design is by Mary Mariel P. Singson.
Tales of Enchantment and Fantasy sells for P350 in all National Bookstore and Powerbook branches, the UP Press Bookstore, Popular Bookstore, La Solidaridad, and Books for Less. Interested parties may also email milflores@pldtdsl.net or call 7216431.
Posted on March 11, 2008
Milflores Publishing releases new modern tale collection
