Diwata (American Poets Continuum, 123)
Reyes, Barbara Jane
ISBN 10: 1934414379 ISBN 13: 9781934414378
Published by BOA Editions Ltd., 2010
Used
paperback
From
Your Online Bookstore, Houston, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since July 6, 2010
This specific item is no longer available.
About this Item
Description:
Seller Inventory # 1934414379-3-34083952
Synopsis:
Tagalog is a language spoken by about 22 million people in the Philippines. Diwata is a Tagalog term meaning, “muse.” Diwata is also a term for a mythical figure or being who resides in nature, and whom human communities must acknowledge, respect, and appease, in order to live safely, harmoniously, and prosperously in this world.
In her book Diwata, Reyes uses such Filipino oral tradition devices as meter, repetition and refrain, call and response, incantatory verses which verge on song, and the pantoum (which has Southeast Asian origins). She frames her poems between the Book of Genesis creation story, and the Tagalog creation myth, placing her work somewhere culturally in between both traditions. Also setting the tone for her stories is the death and large shadow cast by her grandfather, a World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor, who has passed onto her the responsibility of remembering. Reyes’ voice is grounded in her community’s traditions and histories, despite war and geographical dislocation
About the Author: Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of five previous collections of poetry: Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003), Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2006), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, Diwata (BOA, 2010), which received the Global Filipino Literary Award for Poetry, To Love as Aswang (PAWA, Inc. Publications, 2015), Invocation to Daughters (City Lights, 2017), and Letters to a Young Brown Girl (BOA, 2020). She is an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco’s Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland, CA. For more information about Barbara Jane Reyes, visit barbarajanereyes.com.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Bibliographic Details
Title: Diwata (American Poets Continuum, 123)
Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.
Publication Date: 2010
Binding: paperback
Condition: Good