Novelist Bobis takes Pinoy lantern maker’s story to US

She has been living thousands of miles away from her native land for almost 20 years now. But multi-awarded Filipina writer Merlinda Carullo Bobis, who is currently based in Australia, remains a keen observer of dichotomies in Philippine politics and culture. Through the eyes of 10-year-old “Noland," the mute Filipino protagonist in her new novel, “The Solemn Lanter Maker," Bobis was able to hollow out contradictions from situations already hackneyed in the eyes of familiar folks. The story builds up when Noland, a lantern maker, imagines seeing an angel falling from the sky to a slum area in Manila where he lives with his crippled mother, Nena. But the angel, it turns out, is only an American tourist caught in a drive-by shooting of a political journalist. “Bobis' … novel is a beguiling mix of polarities: of the holy and the profane, of Third-World Asian poverty and white Western affluence. It tackles child prostitution, government corruption and international politics, which all sound heavy going, but Bobis is also known for her poetry and the book is suffused with gorgeous imagery," says a review published in Australia’s news site, The Age. The prolific Bobis, who is also a dancer and visual artist, has produced a number of novels, short stories, dramas, and poems that were published by Pier 9, Murdoch Books-Australia, Anvil Publishing- Manila, Spinifex Press North Melbourne, and De La Salle University Press-Manila, and Aunt Lute Books-San Francisco. Random House Publishing released her new novel in the US, where Bobis, a native of Legaspi City in Albay province, recently held a series of book talks and performances in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco’s Kularts and the Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. organized the weekend book talks and signing at the Bayanihan Community Center in San Francisco. During the talk, Bobis said the new book was inspired by the colorful and dazzling lanterns she saw while she was inside a cab caught in a traffic jam in the Philippines. When she saw the lanterns, she thought that there must be a story behind these Christmas decorations. And then she saw a boy standing and guarding the lanterns who became the subject of her novel. UC Berkeley and University of the Philippines Philippine Studies faculty member and poet Joi Barrios with UCLA’s Lucy Burns moderated the event series with Bobis. Barrios said the Philippines should take pride in Bobis, who has received numerous awards including the Philippines’ National Balagtas Award, the Steele Rudd Australian Short Story Award, the Prix Italia, the Australian Writers' Guild Award, and the Pamana Philippine Presidential Award. Bobis’ plays have also been produced on stage and radio in Australia, the Philippines, France, China, Thailand and the Slovak Republic in the Western Sydney Aurora Festival, Darwin Arts Festival, Sydney Asian Theatre Festival, the Philippine-France Festival-Paris, and the Cultural Centre of the Philippines- Manila, among many others. Bobis taught Literature and English in Philippine universities for a decade before immigrating to Australia in 1991. She completed a Doctorate of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong, where she now teaches creative writing. - MARCONI CALINDAS, GMANews.TV