Returning Home: Writing the Filipino Experience

Join author Monica Macansantos in conversation with journalist Camille Elemia for a discussion on loss, family history and belonging. About the event Celebrate Auckland Heritage Festival with us by joining Monica Macansantos, author of Returning to My Father's Kitchen and Love and Other Rituals, in conversation with award-winning journalist Camille Elemia at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero. Monica will read from her new essay collection, Returning to My Father's Kitchen, followed by a discussion that will explore themes of loss, reckoning with family history, finding a sense of belonging, and nourishing oneself in different places. About the author Monica Macansantos was born and mostly raised in the Philippines, while spending much of her adulthood in the United States and Aotearoa. She is the author of the essay collection, Returning to My Father’s Kitchen, and the story collection, Love and Other Rituals. She was recently a Shearing Fellow with the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Marguerite & Lamar Smith Fellow with the Carson McCullers Center in Columbus, Georgia. She earned her MFA in Writing from the University of Texas at Austin, Michener Center for Writers, and her PhD in Creative Writing from Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington. Image credit: Monica Macansantos