FilAm authors’ night set at LA Times book festival
RANCHO PALOS VERDES, California – Filipino American Authors’ Night, hosted annually by Philippine Expressions Bookshop, will present eight authors and their new works on Friday, April 19 from 5:30–9:00 p.m. at the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) Community Hall on 1145 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
The APALC building is on the corner of Lucas Street and Wilshire, next to the Good Samaritan Hospital. Visit https:///www.apalc.org/ for the map site. The venue host is Carmina Ocampo, a Fil-Am lawyer connected with APALC. The event is free and open to the public but RSVP is requested. Call Linda Nietes at (310) 514-9139 or email [email protected]. Street parking is available or at Athena Parking for $6.00 located at 634 Lucas Street.
Traditionally held on the eve of the LA Times Festival of Books, this year’s event includes two out-of-state women authors: Almira Astudillo Gilles of Chicago and Criselda Yabes, a journalist from Manila. The rest of the authors are from Northern and Southern California: Janet Stickmon of Napa Valley, Steven Yagyagan of San Diego, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard of Santa Monica, and first time authors Marvin Gapultos, Giovanni Ortigas and Sumi Sevilla Haru. The writers will talk, do readings and sign their books. (For more details https://philippineexpressionsbookshop.wordpress.com/category/events/authors-night-events/ )
The bookshop accepts orders of autographed copies of the featured authors’ books. The Philippine Expressions Bookshop’s Booth # 033 is located at Trousdale Parkway, along Exposition Boulevard at USC Campus, Los Angeles. For more details, visit the Festival’s website: https://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/general-information/ For maps and direction to USC Campus, visit https://visit.usc.edu/ For photos of authors and their books, visit the Bookshop’s blog called Literally Yours: https://philippineexpressionsbookshop.wordpress.com/category/events/authors-night-events/
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, now on its 18th year, and Philippine Expressions Bookshop has participated since 1997. The bookshop’s Authors’ Night started with just a couple of Fil-Am authors, but more works of Fil-Am authors have been published over the years. This year’s featured authors will be joined by four other authors: Carina Forsythe known in the writing world as Carina Monica Montoya, Albert J. Mortiz, Myrna Mulhern and Leslie Ryan. Details about them and their books are in the bookshop’s blog.
Philippine Expressions proprietor Linda Nietes of Rancho Palos Verdes says she is “glad to be part of the cultural scene of the City of Los Angeles all these years and to have helped create more awareness for the Filipino literary traditions in America.”
Philippine Expressions was established in Los Angeles in 1984 to provide a home for Philippine writings in America. When martial law was declared in the Philippines in 1972 and Philippine writings were censored, Linda Nietes bravely opened Casalinda Bookshop, her first Filipiniana bookshop in San Antonio Plaza, Forbes Park, Makati.
Her aim was to encourage Filipinos to write despite political censorship and to provide a home for Philippine writings during that period. After twelve years of living in a repressive society under martial law, she left for the United States in 1984 and reopened her business as Philippine Expressions Bookshop in Westwood Village near UCLA. Two years later in 1986, dictator Ferdinand Marcos was deposed but Nietes decided to stay on.
In 1997, she moved to Rancho Palos Verdes where her home-based mail order bookshop still operates. Counting the years when she opened her first bookshop, Nietes has been a bookseller and cultural activist for the last 41 years, of which 29 years were on American soil. Before becoming a Philippine book specialist, she worked for the world’s biggest stock market brokerage firm in Hong Kong.
