Huzzah! An homage to Calvino, my first real stab at short short fiction, “The Rift” earned finalist recognition for The Center for Women Writers International Reynolds Price Short Fiction Award and is now included on Puerto del Sol’s first digital issue Vol 51.1.
Please check out “The Rift” here and share the love with your favorite readers. Thanks always for your support.
Yours truly has received my contributor’s copy of Rabbit Fool Press’ anthology “Completely Mixed Up” edited by Brandy Lien Worrall Soriano.
…fifteen years in the making. The project started in 2000, with a trilogy of 700 handmade chapbooks. Over the years, the project has been presented all throughout North America, most notably in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York. Seventy contributors offer over 150 works of visual art, writing, photography, and performance in this groundbreaking anthology, displaying creative expressions of what it means to be mixed race/mixed heritage Asian American and Canadian.
Please spread the word to your favorite readers and consider using the anthology for your classes or donating to libraries. Copies are available at their website and Amazon.
…but not holding my breath. Here’s a most welcome surprise in my inbox from a recent literary contest submission that has me honored to have work recognized and be reminded, once again, how writing is a lifetime practice of patience and perseverance.
Yours truly enjoyed the recent honor to guest-blog for dear friend and writer Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. She’s been there since the beginning of this writer’s journey publishing one of my very first short stories that lived to see the light of day. Cecilia has blazed the path I now trek, and I’m grateful for any chance to collaborate with her. Maraming salamat! Please peep out the post here.
Over ten years in the making, after hundreds of revisions and countless reincarnations, my short story, “With Hummingbird in Hand,” will finally see the light of day thanks to the editors at the Australian-based journal Kurungabaa.
Here’s an excerpt:
The oil in the deep fryer bubbled and cracked as Yesenia and Claudia orchestrated the breakfast shift. Parked in a littered alley next to a super-sized Home Depot in a ragged quarter of East Hollywood, Yesenia’s mobile kitchen, Mariscos de Madrugada, served as a beacon for over-worked souls who scrambled through gridlock, measuring their lives by paychecks and commutes. Outside their kitchen, police sirens blared, cars backfired, and horns honked. The mariachis they hired to entertain their hungry customers played at the curbside. The trim of their charro outfits gleamed in the early morning sun as the rush of orders kept coming.
Check out the original announcement on Kurungabaa’s website, where you can pick up a copy for yourself.
Latest Issue Vol4 No1 © 2012!
Vol. 4 No. 1 out now!
**Prose
Derek Hynd
Susan Gottlieb
Rebecca Olive
Louise Victoria Jeffredo
Shaun Tomson
Aga Maksimowska
Michael Scott Moore
Greg Bogaerts
Cori Schumacher
Andrea Frost
Brian Barbeito
Carole Lander
Clifton Evers
Madelaine Dickie
Byron Alexander Campbell
Rashaan Meneses
Taylor Claire Miller
Poems
Kim Satchell
Corrina Cop Rain Mcfarlane
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner
Susan Adams
Louise Victoria Jeffredo
Trevor Abes
Carolyn Abbs
Celeste Snowber
Mara Nichols
Rhonda Melanson
Art
Dane Peterson
Hugo Muecke
*
Note that the current issue is available in hard copy (the real rag) at the following fine establishments:
Six Ounce Board Store, Manly
The Sugarmill, Narabeen
The Top Shop, Byron Bay (behind the counter)
Poetry Foundation’s Harriet the Blog has the honor and pleasure of hosting a regular online column 
with poet and professor Barbara Jane Reyes, who’s latest poets speaks truth to power, breaking silence and representation while giving a shout out to Pinay voices, including yours truly.
Do your soul a favor, and check out her words and Pinay works:
As an author, I’ve been very uncomfortable, being expected to “represent” an entire community. Some years back, as a guest speaker in Willie Perdomo‘s VONA workshop, Building the Poetry Manuscript, I was asked by one Pinay student what that felt like, being a Pinay expected to “represent.” I told her I disliked it; though I think my work can be resonant and relevant to a Filipina American experience, it’s my own take on that wildly divergent thing. Moreover, something I’ve known since I was young, something to which my parents can attest, is that I am never the Pinay that people expect Pinays to be.
Read the entire post here.
Maraming salamat Barbara for making community!
“20 New Faculty Members Join Saint Mary’s in the 2011-12 Academic Year,” Feature Story, posted in SMC’s News & Events August 26, 2011:
Rashaan Alexis Meneses joins St. Mary’s College as an adjunct professor in Liberal and Civic Studies. She has taught at Merritt College, Laney College and Diablo Valley College and holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s. A Jacob K. Javits Fellow, her research and writing focuses on the Filipino and Mexican diaspora, immigration and overseas workers, cosmopolitanism, and globalized cross-cultural influences. She serves as a Collegiate Seminar Governing Board member and, last fall, co-supervised the SMC Writing Center. She has been published recently in UC Riverside’s The Coachella Review, University of North Carolina’s Pembroke Magazine and the anthology, “Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults.”
On the summer solstice, June 21, 2010, among dear family and close friends, my partner of twelve years and myself jaunted over to San Francisco City Hall for a civil union. When we arrived, we had just missed a tour of elementary kids who were boarding their buses as we filed in for our appointment to be wed ’til death do us part. After our ceremony under the rotunda, we whisked up to the top floor for a photo shoot meanwhile SEIU members demonstrated, singing “We Shall Overcome.” We followed our civil union with a photo shoot at one of our favorite venues, the Legion of Honors. The day closed with an exchange of vows on Ocean Beach, and after ward we celebrated with dinner at the Cliff House.
We were lucky enough to have this magical day documented by our one of our nearest and dearest friends, who I’ve known since our salad days at UCLA. The photographer, artist, and educator Brenda Janairo captured the solstice’s events with her artistry. Here’s an excerpt of her website:
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
I’m a sucker for love. I’m the one who watches all the weepy love flicks and cries like a baby. Yes, I admit, I love to cry. It’s not the mere action of crying that I love, but more the ability to connect to characters that I watch. To me that is what creates a beautiful film, characters I can sympathize with.
Now, when I connect to people in real life…tears do flow. A few weekends ago I had the honor of shooting the wedding of 2 amazing individuals, Rashaan and Phil.
Your Salonniere is grateful for such wonderful colleagues and supportive friends who have lent their time and virtual space to give some shout outs. Many thanks to Jennie Durant and Veronica Montes for coverage on your sites!
Speaking of brave and wonderful writers, I would like to draw your attention to two excellent stories. The first is “In My Country,” by Tony Robles; the second is “Like Fish to Ginger,” by Rashaan Alexis Meneses. Take a few minutes out of your Internet surfing and enjoy; I know I did.
My talented friend and fellow M.F.A. graduate Rashaan Meneses recently wrote “Like Fish to Ginger” a lovely and haunting story about a Thai immigrant and the complex chemistry of food and romance. Read the first few paragraphs here, then click on the link for more. It’s a beautiful read. The only downside is that now I’m dying for a bowl of curry…
Once in a blue moon, mountains are moved, seas are shifted, and your Salonniere gets lucky enough to have a piece published. If you like Thai food, love/hate Los Angeles, or enjoy quirky short fiction, please check out my short story, “Like Fish to Ginger” included in The University of California, Riverside’s The Coachella Review Fall 2010 online issue. Many thanks to SMC Fiction MFA’ers for helping to make this possible. And, if it strikes your fancy, please pass the word along to friends, family, colleagues, students, blogs, tweets, Facebook, etc. Thanks for all your wonderful support.
Try a taste:
Before I set out to make my mark in Los Angeles, I chased Sunee. We met in a steamy noodle house in the Dusit District of Bangkok where I elbowed my way from dishwasher to sous chef. Sunee worked as hostess. Both seventeen, she knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn’t me. Like with a delicate soup, I had to know when to stir and when to let the ingredients meld on their own. For seven months I coaxed her to me, savoring every minute of it, the taste of falling in love. This was all ages ago when cooking was like breathing.
Check out the entire piece, about a 15-minute read, at The Coachella Review.
Rashaan Alexis Meneses 