Eileen R. Tabios is a poet working in multiple genres and in-between. She also loves books by writing, reading, publishing, critiquing, romancing and advocating for them. This blog will feature her bibliophilic activities with posts on current book engagements and links to her books and projects related to books.

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

HIRAETH: TERCETS FROM THE LAST ARCHIPELAGO

A new poetry manuscript. But of course. This one entitled

HIRAETH
Tercets From the Last Archipelago

I like this definition (which was introduced to me by one of Melissa Sipin's FB posts (salamat! Sometimes FB is useful):


As the title indicates, the poems -- or it could be a single, book-length poem (don't know yet) -- are all written viz tercets.

HIRAETH also reminds me of British artist Andrew Bick's paintings, specifically an older series I fell in love with wherein he paints on "wax" layers.  Here are some (crappy) IPhone photos of some of his works to illustrate how I feel he made art the way I created the poems in HIRAETH: through layers.  If I understand his process right, Bick poured a layer of wax (or something wax-like) and painted on it; after the layer dried, he poured another layer and painted on it again, and so on.  The result is a thickened surface where each layer is transparent enough to reveal the earlier brush strokes.  Here are two examples with which I've enjoyed living for years:



Those square patches of non-transparence are, IMHO, panes of genius: in life, there will always be things that remain forgotten or stubbornly incomprehensible, di ba?  Here's a drawing that's part of this series and which I found witty and innovative for its material: he made a drawing and then slipped it in a wax paper bag to evoke the same sense of transparence but with the fuzziness of memory and/or intellect (of course that black panel is smart!):


All of this surfaced organically from the pot ever-brewing within me -- the poems, and their ekphrasis inspiration, arising with no conscious intent. This poet's job? To go with the flow with whatever overflows from prior living -- poems allowed facilitated by getting out of the way....







Tuesday, September 29, 2015

ON NAVIGATING THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE THAT IS NOT A "LEVEL PLAYING FIELD"

Becoming a parent nearly seven years ago by adopting a 13-year-old also exposed me (for the first time in three decades) to the state of education in the U.S.  I was shocked. Appalled. I'm a public school kiddo and the deterioration in quality from my time to the current is discernibly steep.  And all in the context of unequal educational quality across the country as enhanced by the widening rifts between the poor and the wealthy (among other things). After all, the privileges of wealth translate to better tutoring, more diverse extracurricular activities, and better resume-bolstering activities such as unpaid internships.

And so I want to share a letter I had sent to the president of my alma mater, Barnard College.  I received a lovely reply yesterday which made me think to share this letter, in part due to the statistics inclination (through standardized tests) of many college applications; I edited out, for privacy reasons, some paragraphs related to my son.

*


Dr. Deborah Spar
President, Barnard College
3009 Broadway
New York, N.Y., 10027

Dear Dr. Spar,

            Years ago, you wrote an article in the Barnard Alumnae Magazine (BAC), the only article ever to remain in my memory (that’s become a colander over time). You wrote about “Tonya,” a student who had applied to Barnard and came from circumstances (poverty, poor quality of pre-college education, among others) that made you worry whether she would be prepared for Barnard’s academic rigor. I hoped then that Barnard, indeed, would accept her …

            Then, through the latest issue of BAC, I see that Barnard did accept her and that Tonya has successfully graduated from Barnard! No words can capture my immense gratitude to you and Barnard for that decision. THANK YOU!!!  Any institution of higher learning certainly should be aware of the structural constraints and un-level landscape that is American education and I’m glad that Barnard was/is sophisticated enough to wo-maneuver through that terrain.

            [...]

  I suppose Tonya’s story is close to my heart as I count myself among the underprivileged kids who applied to college. In looking back at my younger self, I remember—and sheepishly admit to Barnard through you for the first time—fulfilling the required foreign language exam by taking the Russian test. I knew not a single word of Russian. But I remember thinking as a high school student that my Spanish test results were not likely to be stellar (I have difficulty learning foreign languages), so I thought then that I may as well offer a poor test result in a more impressive-for-being-unusual language relative to Spanish which nearly everyone I knew in California was studying. Whether or not that strategy greatly improved my chances, I look back at that younger self and admire her for trying to think out of the box—it is a type of “street smarts” that also made me survive college to be a proud Barnard College graduate today.

I believe more institutions of higher education should be looking for those elements (beyond statistics) that may make a student survive if not thrive in an academic setting. I am so glad—and proud—that Barnard College is this type of an institution, particularly given what you call the “great and tragic divide” that is the country’s educational landscape.

I was a mediocre student at Barnard as I (perhaps mistakenly) privileged my journalism extracurricular experiences to academics.  But Barnard did prepare me well for the world.  That is why I am sending you two of my poetry books,  two Selected Poems projects.  I don’t mean to force you to read my poems (you don’t have to read them!)—but I did want to share the books as physical proof more than 30 years later that when colleges make decisions along “The Right Stuff,” as you’d entitled your latest article, it is a good investment.

By the way, like Tonya, I was also a recipient of generous financial aid…

Again, thank you for myself and for Tonya.  And because Barnard educated me to be part of the world, thanks to Barnard as well for giving me the insight to have, today, a son—my only child. On his behalf, thank you for helping him achieve his potential through family and education.  What we do can have such wide-ranging ramifications, and I am truly grateful to Barnard College for what it does.

Sincerely,

Eileen R. Tabios









Monday, September 28, 2015

FIL AM INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL, SAN FRANCISCO!

You are invited to


Eileen Tabios will participate in the Third Filipino American International Book Festival (FilBookFest) on October 2-4, 2015 at the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. All of her events will take place Saturday, Oct. 3:
Her first event will be "Fil-Am Lit," a panel presenting Filipino-American writers starting at 11 am.  She will be joined by Luis H. Francia, Barbara Jane Reyes and Erin Entrada Kelly. Moderator: Cecilia Brainard.
Her second event will a "Hot Off the Presses" reading with other newly-published authors starting at 1:45 p.m. The reading will be moderated by fictionist Cecilia Brainard.
Her third event will be a panel on young adult and/or children's literature and will commence at 3 p.m. Other panelists are Erin Entrada Kelly and Candy Gourlay with moderator James Sobredo.
The total FilBook Fest schedule, with locations, is available HERE.

FilBookFest also celebrates Filipino American History Month. The festival will include book displays where book sales and signings will be available.  Here's a video:

https://youtu.be/GqGTnOr6Ow8

And here is an article about last year's FilBookFest.

FilBookFest's sponsors include Philippine-American Writers and Artists (PAWA) and the San Francisco Public Library.



Sunday, September 27, 2015

BART, WITH(OUT) PHILIP LAMANTIA




16 Years in Bay Area--and, finally, I took the BART for the first time (going from San Francisco to book launch in Berkeley). It was a moment ... because I had promised my first BART ride years ago to be one where Philip Lamantia would be my guide. He would even spring for the fare, the generous poet said. When he passed without that ride taking place, I lost all interest in sampling BART. Friday, I scolded myself, "Toss this silliness aside: get on that subway!" ("Subway"? Well, I'll always be a New Yorker...) So I did, and the experience was both full and empty at the same time. Life is strange -- I'm not sure how I got to be so lucky to spend time with Philip Lamantia, but I did and do miss him. (Here's Garrett Caples on Philip.)





Friday, September 25, 2015

INVENT(ST)ORY IS LAUNCHED ... AND NOW FLIRTING WITH STARS!

INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New

was officially launched Sept. 25, 2015 at U.C. Berkeley.  Here are some pics!

(Book with melted Halo-Halo--what's not to like?!)




(first-time attendees at a poetry reading!)

(w/ home-made cochinta by Maganda editor Marian Gordon!)

(Marian with current issue of MAGANDA!)

(Michelle Bautista)

(roses from Joi Barrios)


**

From the original invitation:

THE PUBLIC IS INVITED TO

a book launch, reading, discussion addressing varied topics like activism, aesthetics and "Life as an Artist" with
Eileen R. Tabios

on Friday, September 25, 2015*
6-8 pm
Ethnic Studies Library, 30 Stephens Hall
U.C. Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

{m}aganda magazine, "the longest-running Filipino-American literary arts publication in the nation," as well as the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library sponsor this event which also serves as the official book launch for Ms. Tabios' newest book,

INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New

Thursday, September 24, 2015

INVENT(ST)ORY BOOK LAUNCH AT U.C. BERKELEY!

MAGANDA ("BEAUTIFUL") PEOPLE INVITE THE  PUBLIC TO

a book launch, reading, discussion addressing varied topics like activism, aesthetics and "Life as an Artist" with Eileen R. Tabios

on Friday, September 25, 2015
6-8 pm
Ethnic Studies Library, 30 Stephens Hall
U.C. Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

{m}aganda magazine, "the longest-running Filipino-American literary arts publication in the nation," as well as the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library sponsor this event which also serves as the official book launch for Ms. Tabios' newest book,

INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New


FACEBOOK EVENTS PAGE!


BIO: 
Eileen R. Tabios is a poet, fictionist, cultural activist, critic, publisher, editor and visual artist. She loves books, and thus has released about 30 collections of poetry, essays, fiction and experimental biographies from publishers in nine countries and cyberspace. She has also edited or conceptualized ten anthologies, including VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA, a fundraising anthology for Haiyan survivors that involved 133 poems by Filipino poets from around the world. She believes in no separation between “life” and “art.” A long-time contributor to {m}aganda, she received her B.A. in Political Science from Barnard College and M.B.A. in economics and international business from New York University’s Graduate School of Business. More information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com

BOOK DESCRIPTION: 
Eileen R. Tabios’ second “Selected” poems book, INVENT(ST)ORY, focuses on the “list poem” form and presents poems written over the past 19 years. Despite the specificity of the form, the poems address a large variety of themes and styles. Covered topics include Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, mail order brides, the 200 million-plus orphans worldwide, the U.S. war in Iraq and balikbayan boxes. Poetic styles addressed include the lyric, abstraction, footnote poems and randomly-generated poetry. Poet-scholar Thomas Fink says about INVENT(ST)ORY, “In the United States, the catalog or list poem first made its appearance in the work of Walt Whitman, who himself was evidently influenced by Old Testament verse-lists. Like Whitman, [Eileen] Tabios has prioritized democratic impulses in the conscious shaping and articulation of her poetics. However, while Whitman stands as a figure claiming centrality for his American-ness and for an idea of “America,” Tabios’ transcolonial subjectivity has done much to shape her poetics.” More book information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com/poetry/inventstory-selected-catalogue-poems-new/




ON REVIEWING: "THOUGHT- AND EMOTION-PRODUCING"


There’s a tricky stage in starting up a new review journal, as I just did with THE HALO-HALO REVIEW’s Mangozine.  It’s when you have to seed the debut issue with new reviews.  For The Mangozine, I am blessed to have had the help of several poet-critics who, in the past, have reviewed for Galatea Resurrects (GR).  So thank you to these GR reviewers who helped launch The Mangozine: John Bloomberg-Rissman, Rebecca Loudon, Allen Bramhall, Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey and Thomas Hibbard.  Nine new reviews is a decent presentation for most single review issues (though not by GR’s standards, but that’s a different story).  The Mangozine’s Review Copy List is not (yet) as extensive as GR’s, but I invite you to peruse it and hopefully engage.  While Filipino authors are the subjects, reviewers need not be Filipino. Next review submission deadline is Jan. 30, 2016.

*


While I edit THE HALO-HALO REVIEW, I allow (unlike with GR) reviews of my works to be posted there in the spirit of HHR serving as an aggregator of online review links to Filipino-authored works.  So I also thank John and Tom for engaging with my writings.  I never (or rarely) challenge how others read my words — and I am fascinated by these two reviews for presenting thoughts that did not occurr to me whilst writing the poems (which is part of the beauty of Poetry!).  Jose Garcia Villa, towards the end of his life, said something about how he’s turned to poems that make one think (rather than simply sing). Thanks for this, Thomas Hibbard, for leaping from AGAINST MISANTHROPY to a reasoned discourse of globalism and global warning:

What, then, does globalism even mean on a “macro” scale?  It might mean that the so-called “carbon footprint” of humankind is probably an insignificant factor in terms of the environmental future of our planet.  It might mean that the appearance and disappearance of glaciers is a somewhat more normal fluctuation than at this time we view it.  It might mean that we don’t yet have good science on, for example, such things as the part that lithium plays in the formation of solar systems and galaxies. It  might mean we need to know where the Sulphur in our oceans originates.  It might mean our rare atmosphere and biosphere, with its oxygen and liquid water, are possibly very much in jeopardy from ice formation or complete evaporation as seems to be the more common surface condition of most planets but from natural factors which we are only beginning to study.  In Gaia, Lovelock does an excellent job of discussing the atmosphere of earth on a macro scale, and he points toward the significance of our being able to contrast our atmosphere with that of other planets. 

In terms of human life, the macro perspective might mean that we are more afraid of our unknown fates than we are aware,  that humankind is less well established on the planet than it believes it is, living and dying pitifully huddled together and exposed in rags in a way that we are currently incapable of seeing and understanding.  Yes, we have become, as the apostle Paul says, citizens rather than subjects, but don’t forget that it is a citizenship established in the manner of adoption.  Our promotion comes at the cost of learning that we are citizens of a much more autonomous and formidable emptiness than we could ever have imagined.  The “arduity” that poets such as Tabios face is to write about our birth into a magnificent mystery of Creation that sometimes we are capable of mistaking for being doomed.  In fact, in both poetry and science, globalism on the macro level seems to me pretty much summed up as this:   humankind’s understanding and activity needs to be motivated and advanced based on faith and knowledge rather than fear and desperate melodramatic manipulation.  Just as Tabios resolves to connect writing good poems with being “a good person,” the citizens of the macro perspective must resolve to do the right thing in a straightforward diligent and mature and open manner—for the sake of life in society. 

Globalism is our new life of abstraction, lived in an uncrowded space, inside our twenty-four hour a day (or perhaps twenty-five or forty-five hour a day) space suits of conceptuality.  Globalism is interacting with our miraculous, strangely wonderful surroundings of loneliness and affection and that includes some moments of apprehension and not knowing, in the seeming scale of randomness or else improbability.  Globalism is finding our bearings in the infinite context.         

AND thanks for this, John Bloomberg-Rissman, for saying about my work that you’re “always left with a bit of mystery. Which I think is thought and emotion producing. Which is great” before exemplifying it in your review of my poem "What Can A Daughter Say?" with these thoughts:

Perhaps this is where my NOT being an exile or immigrant becomes a strength, but perhaps it also becomes a source of misreading. In any case, my immediate thought upon finishing this poem was: why, among all the world’s leaders who have been linked with terrible crimes, are no USAmericans listed? Yes, the names of a number of presidents are listed, but not with crimes attached to their names. Which leads to a question: does a person exiled to the US, or who has emigrated here, have a different relationship with the nation’s crimes than I (who as born in Chicago) have? Or is there another reason for this what to me is an obvious (meaning not accidental) omission? I don’t know. I really have no idea.

But I must say, that these omissions do say something. I just don’t know what. But it’s important somehow. It feels important. Not in terms of the grief that this poem is working thru. I only know that if I had written these lines, and if I had limited myself to US crimes against humanity that took place from Johnson on, I would have had to write:

“My father is not Lyndon Baines Johnson, or Richard Milhaus Nixon, who, between them, murdered 700,000 Vietnamese for no intelligible reason, and disrupted Southeast Asia to such an extent that the Khmer Rouge, and hence Pol Pot, became possible, and as we already know, Pol Pot, who ‘killed between a quarter and a third of his country’s population.’”

“My father is not George Herbert Walker Bush, or William Jefferson Clinton, who, between them, embargoed Iraq and did not allow the importation of chemicals that would purify the water, so that 500,000 children died of intestinal diseases.” [Note: Tabios – the poet  and/or the persona – attributes these deaths to Saddam Hussein. I can only say that the US Ambassador to Iraq under both Bush and Clinton said, in my presence, that the US was to blame for the death of those children. I know, as the poem says, ambassadors lie, but I couldn’t see in 2003, when I heard him say this, and I still can’t see, what this particular ambassador had to gain by his statement]

“My father is not George W Bush, who invaded Iraq in 2003 under the known pretense (lie) that Iraq had something to do with the 9/11 attacks, even tho he knew they didn’t, which morphed into the lie that Iraq was a danger because it had WMDs, which morphed into the lie that we were bringing them democracy, and who is responsible for the deaths of a million or so Iraqis who died because of the US invasion and occupation (whoever in fact did the killing, they wouldn’t have died otherwise).”

And, just as a footnote, during the year since the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, 1091 people have been killed in the US by police. That’s almost 3 a day, which is heading towards Pinochet territory, whether or not some of the dead “earned” it (suicide by cop, etc).  

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I think Tabios SHOULD have included these lines, or ones like them; it simply the fact that she didn’t, that the US in this poem is somehow (apparently) exempted, that I found so … interesting. I make no critique of the poem for what it doesn’t include. But. The fact that there are no such lines tells me that there are things about this poem I don’t understand, and thus my position as a reader (and more) is raised, in my eyes at least. My takeaway is that it is possible that it’s different to be her than me, or it’s different to be an exile / immigrant than not to be one, or it’s different to be a Filipino than not.


Thought- and emotion-producing. I aspire to such for my poems. Thanks for the feedback that showed engagement with both heart and intellect.







Wednesday, September 23, 2015

HALO-HALO AND MANGOS!



ANNOUNCEMENT:
THE HALO-HALO REVIEW and THE MANGOZINE!

We’re delighted to announce the debut of THE HALO-HALO REVIEW (HHR) and its zine, The Mangozine

HHR (http://halohaloreview.blogspot.com) serves as an online aggregator of links to reviews and other engagements with English-language works in all genres by Filipinos writers.  We are always looking for links to how people are discussing Filipino-authored works. Send links to us at galateaten at gmail dot com.  HHR will be updated as link information is received.

HHR’s The Mangozine (http://halohaloreview.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-halo-halo-reviews-mangozine-issue.html) will come out as often as the editor has time to put an issue together – we currently expect to release the zine two to three times a year.  Through The Mangozine, we will present new reviews and engagements, reader testimonials about beloved Filipino authors and online publication of reviews, book introductions and other relevant material that already exists but are not yet available online.  The inaugural issue at presents an example of the type of material future issues may include.

We hope HHR is of service to lovers of literature as well as teachers. In particular, The Mangozine’s third section that offers online reprints of book Introductions, Prefaces, and Afterwords serve to highlight the uniqueness of Filipino literature which is often subsumed in larger categories such as Asian American and/or People of Color literature.

Feel free to contact me through galateaten@gmail.com if you have questions or suggestions.  Until then, have a happy time discovering more about the variety and beauty of Filipino English-language literature.


Eileen R. Tabios
Editor, THE HALO-HALO REVIEW
with a bunch of volunteers who make her projects possible—Salamat!

**

FOR CONVENIENCE, here is the Table of Contents to The Mangozine Issue 1:
ISSUE 1
(September 2015)

Editor's Note:  I wanted to offer as much content as possible for the first issue in order to show examples of what can appear in future issues. So I apologize that the first issue is heavy on my book projects (what I've written/edited and authors I've published through Meritage Press or had reviewed in a journal I edit, Galatea Resurrects).  This results from the limited review copies available at this stage to a start-up journal. We hope readers, writers and publishers will be encouraged by Issue I to participate and share information about numerous Filipino authors and the wide variety of their writings. Review Copy information is HERE; you are encouraged to fatten up the list as well as pick some to review! 
Eileen Tabios' Editor's Note continues over HERE.


I.  NEW REVIEWS & ENGAGEMENTS

The essays by Maria Victoria A. Grageda-Smith and Barbara Jane Reyes in  OTHERS WILL ENTER THE GATES: Immigrant Poets on Poetry, Influences, and Writing in America edited by Abayomi Animashan (Black Lawrence Press, 2015). Engaged by Eileen R. Tabios.

IN THE COUNTRY by Mia Alvar (Knopf, New York, 2015). Reviewed by Justine Villanueva.

A Poem & Other Works by Melissa Sipin. Engaged by Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey.

THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young (Meritage Press / xPress(ed), San Francisco & St. Helena / Finland, 2008).  Reviewed by Allen Bramhall.

"WATCH" by Ivy Alvarez (from VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA edited by Eileen R. Tabios (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2014)). Reviewed by Rebecca Loudon.

AGAINST MISANTHROPY: A Life in Poetry (2015-1995) by Eileen R. Tabios (BlazeVOX Books, New York, 2015).  Reviewed by Thomas Hibbard.

Archipelago Dust by Karen Llagas (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2010). Reviewed by Allen Bramhall.

Passional (New Poems and Some Translations) by Ophelia A. Dimalanta (UST Publishing House, Philippines, 2002). Reviewed by Francis C. Macansantos

"What Can A Daughter Say" by Eileen R. Tabios in THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES: Our Autobiography (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2007) and further reprinted in THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems and New (1998-2010) (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2010) andINVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New (1996-2015) (Dos Madres Press, Loveland, OH, 2015). Reviewed by John Bloomberg-Rissman.



II.  AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, POST-BOOK

Eric Gamalinda, post-The Descartes Highlands (Akashic Books, New York, 2014)

Mia Alvar, post-IN THE COUNTRY (Knopf, New York, 2015)



III.  READERS SHOW SOME LOVE TO FILIPINO AUTHORS!

Go HERE to see the Love expressed by the following:

Barbara Jane Reyes on Elynia Ruth Mabanglo

Michelle Bautista on Leny Mendoza Strobel

Ted Benito on Mia Alvar

Kanakan Balintagos on Leny Mendoza Strobel

Tony Robles on Bienvenido N. Santos

Holly Calica on Leny Mendoza Strobel

Beth Garrison on Eileen R. Tabios



IV.  FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE

Reviews

The Gods We Worship Live Next Door by Bino Realuyo (University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, UT, 2006). Reviewed by Kathy Graber, The Literary Review, Fall 2006.

Trading in Mermaids by Alfred Yuson (Anvil Publishing, Manila, 1993). Reviewed by Paul Sharrad, Scarp 24 (Australia), 1994.


From Books: Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, Afterwords and Author's Notes

Luis H. Francia introduces BROWN RIVER, WHITE OCEAN: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Philippine Literature in English (Rutgers University Press, 1993) 

The Co-Editors introduce BABAYLAN: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Writers (Aunt Lute Press, San Francisco, 2000)
--Nick Carbo: "The Other Half of the Sky"
--Eileen R. Tabios: "Rupturing Language for the Rapture of Beauty"

Edwin Lozada introduces FIELD OF MIRRORS: Anthology of Philippine American Writers (Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc., San Francisco, 2008)

Nick Carbo introduces PINOY POETICS: A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Writings on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2004)

Jessica Hagedorn introduces THE ANCHORED ANGEL: The Writings of Jose Garcia Villaedited by Eileen R. Tabios (Kaya Press, New York, 1999)

Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey introduces not so, sea, a poetry collection by MG Roberts (Durga Press, 2014)

Three Poet-Editors introduce The First Hay(na)ku Anthology, co-edited by Mark Young and Jean Vengua (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2005)
--Mark Young: "A not so tercet note"
--Jean Vengua: "The Chicken and the Egg"
--Crag Hill: "For Nico Vassilakis, Quarrying About Hay(na)ku"

Ivy Alvarez, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ernesto Priego and Eileen R. Tabios introduce THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT (Meritage Press / xPress(ed), San Francisco & St. Helena / Finland, 2012)

Eileen R. Tabios presents Afterword to NOT EVEN DOGS, the first book-length hay(na)ku poetry collection and written by Ernesto Priego (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2006)

Eileen R. Tabios presents Preface to her 147 MILLION ORPHANS (MMXI-MML), the first book-length haybun collection (Gradient Books, Finland, 2014)

The Co-Editors introduce FLIPPIN': Filipinos on America (Asian American Writers Workshop, New York, 1996)
--Eric Gamalinda: "Myth, Memory, Myopia: Or, I May Be Brown But I Hear America Singin'"
--Luis H. Francia: "The Other Side of the American Coin"

Introducing The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I by Eileen R. Tabios (xPress(ed), Finland, 2006)
--Leny Mendoza Strobel's Afterword: "The Secret Lives of Punctuations"
--Eileen R. Tabios's Author's Note: "An Ekphrasis: On the Path of the Shona to Sculpt 'The Masvikiru Quatrains"

Virgil Mayor Apostol introduces his WAY OF THE ANCIENT HEALER: Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions (North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 2010)
--Preface
--Introduction

Leny Mendoza Strobel introduces BABAYLAN: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous (Center for Babaylan Studies, Santa Rosa, CA, 2010)

Thomas Fink introduces THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems and New (1998-2010)a poetry collection by Eileen R. Tabios (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2010)

Edith Tiempo introduces Sea Serpent, a poetry collection by Alfred Yuson (Monsoon Press, Philippines, 1980)

Eileen R. Tabios introduces Gravities of Center, a poetry collection by Barbara Jane Reyes (Arkipelago Books Publishing, San Francisco, 2003)

Introducing STAGE PRESENCE: Filipino American Performing Artistsedited by Theodore S. Gonzalves (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2014)
--Ricardo D. Trimillo's Foreword
--Theodore S. Gonzalves' Editor's Note

Vince Gotera introduces Seasons by the Bay, a short story collection by Oscar Peñaranda (T’boli Publishing, 2004)

Eileen R. Tabios introduces Bridgeable Shores: Selected Poems (1969-2001)a poetry collection by Luis Cabalquinto (Galatea Speaks / Kaya Press, New York, 2001)

Bino A. Realuyo introduces The Filipino Literature Issue of The Literary Review (Farleigh Dickinson University, 2007)

Jean Vengua introduces BEHIND THE BLUE CANVAS, a short story collection by Eileen R. Tabios (Giraffe Books, Quezon City, 2004)

Introducing VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA edited by Eileen R. Tabios (Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2014)
--Leny M. Strobel's Foreword
--Eileen R. Tabios' Introduction 

Alfred A. Yuson introduces FATHER POEMS, edited by Alfred A. Yuson and Gemino Abad (Anvil Publishing, Manila, 2004)

Leny Mendoza Strobel introduces ECSTATIC MUTATIONS: Experiments in the Poetry Library, a mixed-genre (poetry/poetics/fiction) collection by Eileen R. Tabios (Giraffe Books, Quezon City, 2000)

Vicente G. Groyon III presents Afterword to Trading in Mermaidsa poetry collection by Alfred Yuson (Anvil Publishing, Manila, 1993).

Eileen R. Tabios introduces the poetry section of BOLD WORDS: A Century of Asian America Writing, edited by Rajini Srikanth and Esther Y. Iwanaga (Rutgers University Press, New Jersey and London, 2001)