Cambridge, motherhood, the novel, and coming back to the page.
August 2026
For Mark
A tiger drawn at sixteen, carried for almost thirty years.
June 2026
Updates from a middle aged life
Middle age is rough, guys.
January 2026
The 2026 obligatory new year post
Lessons, resolutions, goals.
November 2025
Blooming through neglect
I neglected my garden after this year's first flush.
January 2025
Two kinds of creative women, generally
Prose and posies.
September 2024
The why-Neil Gaiman-why post
When lifelong pedestals collapse.
Letters to people who mattered, whether or not they knew it.
May 2023
I—
I remember you in my purple room.
April 2011
For the record, you silly fool
You silly fool.
April 2011
If Henry says it, it must be true
A snapshot taken in heartfelt, viscous prose.
July 2010
For whatever it may be worth
Because some things need saying.
2008
For John
He let me go. And he made it look so easy.
August 2010
Damnit, I dreamt about you again
It isn't fair for you to haunt me this way.
July 2010
For the ex, part deux
One last post from the ex series.
May 2010
For J
Do you remember how you wrote my name in the sand?
March 2010
To Gabriel
As if I had never been there at all.
On language, leaving, identity, and the spaces between.
February 2013
From my notebook: London, friends, post-birthday sentimentality
Sometimes, you find a place in the world where you can just step in.
January 2013
This is what happens when you read Junot Diaz
I am between the lines.
January 2013
Solecism, etc
You have such a unique voice, it's almost like a different kind of English.
August 2011
Life, lately
The last three years of my life have been straight out of a movie.
April 2011
To my New York
The sappiest love letter to a non-entity.
January 2011
Confessions and thanks
My writing has sometimes gotten me in trouble.
October 2010
Leaving et cetera
One out of every seven Filipinos is overseas.
August 2010
In honor of Assumption Day
Lessons mislearned as a private school girl.
August 2010
The eighth of August
I don't know what people thought when I dropped off the face of the earth.
July 2010
Soldier boy
Those who can't teach find no other recourse but to take up the pen.
May 2010
An exercise in recollection
Ah, the memories you bring with you.
August 2005
In defense
Where my patriotism is, where my idealism is.
Manila, histories, the things we carried from before.
April 2012
Memories: eighteen
When I was eighteen, I disappeared.
September 2010
Memories: anting-anting at agimat
Folk magic and the things we believed.
September 2010
History: comfort women
On November 23, 1944, Japanese soldiers stormed the town of Mapanique.
September 2010
History: Phil-Am
There was a time when restaurants had signs that said Filipinos and dogs not allowed.
February 2007
Hello, queso de bola
Love songs aren't pretty when they're lived out.
October 2006
Says the Fish called Wanda
3 years old. I am twirling around in a yellow dress.