Weekly shoutout: A new essay on HowlRound by theatermaker and friend of the show, Anne Mason!

Hi there,

Today I am delighted to be arts calling author Monica Macansantos! (monicamacansantos.com)

About our guest: Monica Macansantos is a Filipino writer from Baguio, and is currently a Marguerite and Lamar Smith Fellow with the Carson McCullers Center in Columbus, Georgia. She is the author of the essay collection, Returning to My Father's Kitchen (Curbstone/Northwestern University Press, 2025), and the story collection, Love and Other Rituals (Grattan Street Press), 2022. She was a 2024-25 Shearing Fellow with the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, and her work has appeared in Colorado Review, The Hopkins Review, Bennington Review, River Styx, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, and Katherine Mansfield and Children (Edinburgh University Press), among other places. She earned her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, and her PhD in Creative Writing from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Her work has been recognized as Notable in Best American Essays 2016 and 2021-2023.

RETURNING TO MY FATHER'S KITCHEN, now available from Northwestern University Press/Curbstone Books:

Purchase from Northwestern University Press: https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810148390/returning-to-my-fathers-kitchen/

From Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/returning-to-my-father-s-kitchen-essays-monica-macansantos/

Purchase from Book People in Austin, which sells signed copies of the book! https://bookpeople.com/book/9780810148390

Also from Monica, LOVE & OTHER RITUALS, a collection of stories: https://www.monicamacansantos.com/loveandotherritualsselectedstories.html

Thanks for this amazing conversation, Monica! All the best!

Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro.

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Much love,

artscalling.com