July 2025 Postcard from Marianne Villanueva:
Marianne’s postcard certainly makes sense with its “THANK YOU FOR YOUR READERSHIP” stamp since it came with her brand new book, the short story collection Residents of the Deep (Unsolicited Press, 2025). I’m very excited to read her latest short story collection—I’ve long anticipated it since Marianne is a stellar fictionist. Her first book and short story collection Ginseng and Other Tales From Manila was one of my introductory reads to Filipino literature.
I’ve since had the chance to read the first story in Residents of the Deep, “Dumaguete,” and it doesn’t disappoint. Marianne is a master of restraint—her insinuations and evocations become more than real as their effects become visceral. At one point of reading the story, I sensed my heartbeat quicken, all from the power of my emotional response to what the story was setting in play, in this case, dread. My continuous wondering of "what is happening?” paradoxically made the story more muscular and powerful. I’ll be writing a more full-blown review in the future, but suffice it to say that Marianne’s strong resonant writing creates a nuanced universe from narrative pebbles.
On the back of her postcard, Marianne writes me a “Congrats on your new book!” It’s very sweet of her to note my novel The Balikbayan Artist and I respond to her postcard and kind thoughts with HERE(scroll down).
Meanwhile, do check out her marvelous short stories in Residents of the Deep. HERE is her publisher’s page at its distributor, Asterism.
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