Episode 1: SIX FROM DOWNTOWN by Dean Francis Alfar

Welcome to PAKINGGAN PILIPINAS!

This is our first official episode, and every month, we’ll feature fiction by Filipino authors, read to you by specially selected narrators.

We’re in for a treat this July, as we have Dean Francis Alfar’s Six from Downtown, read to us by Kate Aton-Osias and Blue Soon.

LINK to FULL EPISODE

I asked the author what inspired him to write this story, and Dean tells us that he felt an acute longing for home while he was stranded by a storm in Dumaguete. He then decided to create an alternate Manila where “the strange was commonplace.”

This piece first saw print in Philippines Free Press (2006), then reappeared in Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 2 (2006, Kestrel), Dean’s collection Kite of Stars and Other Stories (2007, Anvil), as well as online in the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler. The piece won a prize in the 2007 Free Press Awards.

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Keep the stories alive -- don’t forget to drop by our HOW TO HELP page.


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