The Foley Artist: Stories

"A collection like a circus of daredevils. . . . A bravura debut.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

Honorable Mention in the 2021 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Outstanding Achievement

A compelling debut for fans of the Filipino America brought to life in fiction by Elaine Castillo and Mia Alvar.

At once deliciously bizarre and painfully familiar, The Foley Artist introduces a vital new voice to Asian American literature. Ricco Villanueva Siasoco’s powerful debut collection opens new regions of American feeling and thought as it interrogates intimacy, foreignness, and silence in an absurd world. These nine stories give voice to the intersectional identities of women and men in the Filipino diaspora in America: a straight woman attends her ex-boyfriend’s same-sex marriage in coastal Maine; a college-bound teenager encounters his deaf uncle in Manila; Asian American drag queens duke it out in the annual Iowa State Fair; a seventy-nine-year-old Foley artist recreates the sounds of life, but is finally unable to save himself.

Ricco Villanueva Siasoco is a writer, educator, and activist based in Los Angeles. His work has been published in AGNI, Joyland, Drunken Boat, and The North American Review. He has received fellowships from The Center for Fiction, Lambda Literary, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He received his MFA from Bennington College and has taught at Columbia University, Boston College, and the Massachusetts College of Art. Ricco is a board member of Kundiman, a national literary organization dedicated to Asian American literature. He is completing his EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University, where his research interests are anti-bias education, critical pedagogy, and indigenous literature. Currently, he is the Director of Equity & Inclusion at the Chadwick School in Palos Verdes.