The Balikbayan Artist

“Penguin Random House Southeast Asia goes from strength to strength with each passing year. Some of its most noteworthy books came from the pen of Filipino writers…. The Balikbayan Artist is a novel by US-based writer Eileen R. Tabios.”
–Danton Remoto, The Manila Times

“A daughter of the diaspora, Eileen R. Tabios has redefined the word ‘Balikbayan’ to signify existential longing and fortitude. Her gift as a writer is that she allows us space to perceive a myriad of human experiences: desire, loathing, horror, outrage, grief, love. It is this universality that awakens us–to counsel us, Always, always: discern with compassion.” –Aileen Cassinetto, Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow & Co-Editor, Dear Human at the Edge of Time

“After exhilarating the poetry world with her marvelously imaginative poetry, Eileen R. Tabios has turned her ever-experimenting, intellectual mindset to the novel. As she did in poetry, her fiction-writing is expanding the landscape of the genre. I know that each of her novels promises to be as unique as each of her poetry collections.” –Sandy McIntosh, poet/memoirist, bestselling author & Publisher of Marsh Hawk Press

Eileen R. Tabios has released over 70 collections of poetry, fiction, art, essays, and experimental writings from publishers around the world. Translated into 13 languages, she also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized 15 anthologies which has involved hundreds of other poets and writers. Recent releases include an autobiography, THE INVENTOR; a poetry collection Because I Love You, I Become War; an art monograph, Drawing the Six Directions; a flash fiction collection (in collaboration with harry k stammer), Getting To One; a novel DoveLion- A Fairy Tale for Our Times (with a Filipino translation, KalapatingLeon, by Danton Remoto); two French books, PRISES (Double Take) (trans. Fanny Garin) and La Vie erotique de l’art (trans. Samuel Rochery); and a Spanish edition, Uno, dos, tres- Selecci n de Hay(na)kus (One, Two, Three- Selected Hay(na)ku Poems) (trans. Rebeka Lembo). Her body of work further includes a first poetry book, Beyond Life Sentences, which received the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry, as well as invention of the hay(na)ku, a 21st century diasporic poetic form; the MDR Poetry Generator that can create poems totaling theoretical infinity; the “Flooid” poetry form that’s rooted in a good deed; and the monobon poetry form based on the monostich. Her writing and editing works have received recognition through awards, grants and residencies.

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