Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines

A man grows mushrooms from his nostrils, a town elects three mayors at the same time, a woman gives birth to a snake, and a boy wonders if his soldier father is an aswang. Ulirát: The Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines offers alternative visions of the islands beyond poverty and paradise. A vital survey of the richness and diversity of modern Philippine short stories, Ulirát features fiction from Filipino, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Waray, Kinaray-a, and Akeanon translated into English for the first time for international audiences. Vigorous writing from Filipino writers living in different parts of the archipelago re-animate Duterte’s Philippines, dramatizing everything from the drug wars, widespread corruption, and environmental degradation in surprisingly surreal and illuminating ways. Tagalog for “consciousness,” the anthology champions a more expansive, nuanced conception of Filipino literature beyond the confines of English-language Filipino literature.