Celebrate National Literature Month with three new books from Ateneo University Press

April is National Literature Month. As part of our celebration, we are sharing with you the literary titles that are set to be released this month. From proto-fiction to a collection of short stories and a translation of a beloved Filipino novel, these forthcoming titles promise to keep us engaged and leave us with thought-provoking insights on life, love, and everything in between.

Everything Is Fiction: Essays by Vicente Garcia Groyon

Category: Proto-fiction | Personal Essays | Literary Essays

In this selection of essays written over twenty-five years, the award-winning author Vicente Garcia Groyon reflects on his identity as a writer and his relationships to his own writing, to the works of other writers, and the world at large.

Part memoir, part writer’s journal, this collection of introspective, personal, and candid “proto-fictions” is animated by Groyon’s eye for detail, love for storytelling, and commitment to truthfulness.

Special pre-order price: P420 (retails at P495)

Pre-order here.

The Collected Stories of Gregorio C. Brillantes edited by Jonathan Chua

Category: Literature | Postwar Fiction | Realist Fiction

Gathered in this book are stories that bear witness to half a century of postwar life in the Philippines: A country doctor reckons with mortality after seeing a dying infant. A young boy fears the end of days on his way home from the movies. Friends throw parties to discuss dictatorships and insurgencies over bottles of whiskey. Meanwhile, a family besieged by rising floodwaters faces a more menacing threat.

Gregorio C. Brillantes, often labeled as a “Catholic writer,” went beyond this calling and explored the possibilities of realist fiction, producing stories that Nick Joaquin considered as “Literature with a capital L” and are increasingly aware of their political milieu—the Marcos regime, the social unrest, and the vacillations of the middle class. Pensive and philosophical, at times funny and parodic, his work attests not only to a mastery of the short story but also, in the hands of a genius, to the capaciousness of the form.

Edited and with notes by Jonathan Chua, The Collected Stories of Gregorio C. Brillantes reintroduces the author in a time of repeated history.

Special pre-order price: P590 (retails at 695)

Pre-order here.

For B: Or How Love Devastates Four Out of Every Five of Us by Ricky Lee, translated to Filipino by Noelle Q. De Jesus

Category: Literature | Translation | Contemporary Romance

For B is Ricky Lee’s first novel. Interspersing the real and the magical, it mixes comedy with romance to raise the stakes in the five interconnected chapters, all about the permutations of love. Originally published in Filipino in 2008, For B showcases the depth of Lee‘s power as a storyteller whose playfulness with literary form pushes boundaries in Philippine fiction. Translated to English for the first time, this composite novel is a welcome voice to an aspect of world literature that mixes the popular and the literary.

Special pre-order price: P425 (retails at 500)

Pre-order here.

We hope that these books will provide you with a much-needed escape and a renewed appreciation for the power of storytelling.

For more information about forthcoming Ateneo University Press titles, book review proposals, bulk pre-orders, and collaborations send us an email at marketing.unipress@ateneo.edu.