Monica Macansantos

Fiction Writer, Creative Nonfiction Writer

Philippines

Email:

m.macansantos@utexas.edu

Website:

monicamacansantos.com

Twitter/X:

@missmacansantos

Author's Bio

Monica Macansantos is the author of the forthcoming essay collection, Returning to My Father's Kitchen, to be published by Northwestern University Press in Spring 2025, as well as the story collection, Love and Other Rituals, published by Grattan Street Press in 2022. She is a 2024-25 Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute, University of Nevada Las Vegas. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, The Hopkins Review, Bennington Review, Literary Hub, Electric Literature, River Styx, and Katherine Mansfield and Children (Edinburgh University Press), among other places. Her fiction has been recognized with finalist and honorable mention citations in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open, and her nonfiction has been named Notable in the Best American Essays 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2016. She has been awarded residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, Storyknife Writers Retreat, the I-Park Foundation, and Monson Arts. She was a James A. Michener Fellow for Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned her MFA in Fiction and Poetry, and also holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the Victoria University of Wellington, where she held a Doctoral Scholarship.

Education:

University of Texas, James A. Michener Center for Writers MFA

Writers Retreats:

Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts

Storyknife Writers Retreat

Publications & Prizes

Creative Nonfiction

Anthologies:

Katherine Mansfield and Children (Edinburgh University Press, 2021)

The New Filipino Kitchen: Stories and Recipes From Around the Globe (Agate Publishing, 2018)

Impact: An Anthology of Short Memoirs (Telling Our Stories Press, 2012)

Book:

Returning to My Father's Kitchen: Essays (Northwestern University Press, 2025)

Journals:

About Place Journal

Another Chicago Magazine

Literary Hub

TAYO Literary Magazine

The Grief Diaries

Vol. 1 Brooklyn

Your Impossible Voice

Fiction

Anthology:

The Fictioneer (Unsolicited Press, 2015)

Book:

Love and Other Rituals: Stories (Grattan Street Press, 2022)

Chapbook:

Playing With Dolls (Amazon Shorts, 2016)

Journals:

Shirley Magazine

The Hopkins Review

Thin Noon

Women's Studies Quarterly

Your Impossible Voice

Prizes won:

Shearing Fellowship, Black Mountain Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2024-2025), James A. Michener Fellowship, Michener Center for Writers, University of Texas at Austin (2010-2013), Victoria Doctoral Scholarship, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2015-2018), Writing Residency Award, Monson Arts (Fall 2023), Writing Residency Award, Storyknife Writers Retreat (September 2022), Writing Residency Award, I-Park Foundation (October 28-November 22, 2021), Writing Residency Award, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (April-May, 2019), Writing Residency Award, Hedgebrook (March-April, 2014), Writing Residency Award, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (June-July, 2012), Love of Learning Award, Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (2019), Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2023 for the essay, "My Father and W. B. Yeats," Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2022 for "A Shared Stillness," Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2021 for "Returning To My Father's Kitchen" (credited in Best American Essays 2022, in an additional list for 2021), Notable Essay, Best American Essays 2016 for "Becoming A Writer: The Silences We Write Against," Finalist, Glimmer Train Fiction Open, July/August 2016 for the short story, "Leaving Auckland," Honorable Mention, Glimmer Train Fiction Open, December 2013 for the short story, "Stopover"

Watch

Monica Macansantos talks about LOVE AND OTHER RITUALS with Elizabeth McCracken

Listen

Ep. 76 Monica Macansantos | Love & Other Rituals: Home, growing as a writer, and the Filipino diaspora

More Information

Gives readings:

Yes

Travels for readings:

Yes

Identifies as:

Filipino, Southeast Asian

Prefers to work with:

Any

Fluent in:

English, Filipino/Tagalog

Born in:

Baguio

Philippines

Raised in:

Baguio

Philippines

Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.

Last update: Jul 03, 2024