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A short story about a short story: in 2013, Clarion week 2, I had SFWA Grand Master Nalo Hopkinson as my instructor. I remember thinking to myself, "I want to write a very Filipino story this week."
These are the notes she left on my story. I'm near tears looking at this.
These are the notes she left on my story. I'm near tears looking at this.
Why did I have that thought? Because I didn't know if my Filipino stories would work with a savvy genre-reading audience. Because up until that point I'd never sold or published any Filipino short stories outside of Filipino publications. Because I was afraid.
Nalo was a writer of color, so I thought, okay--I'll trust her opinion on this. I felt safe trying out this story with her. I knew at least she'd understand some of where I was coming from. I had read The New Moon's Arms earlier that summer and felt a kinship with her words.
And Nalo GOT IT. She got it. After listening to the class's critique, where they debated the culture and setting and how imaginative and unfamiliar it seemed, she shared this: "Read more closely, and assume that human cultures you don't know are as modern as yours."
I wanted to make it easier on the reader, so at the end of the story I included notes and translations. Nalo said "I wouldn't." She completely shifted for me what it meant to think about audience, *who* I was writing for.
I don't need to hold your hand for my stories.
I don't need to hold your hand for my stories.
She also understand the nuances of the story's dilemma. Milagroso is not just about fake food and the complications of science (and religion! That too!). It's also about how we need to rethink food in a country where so much of the population is literally HUNGRY every single day.
I was shell-shocked receiving this feedback, of course. I think the story, as any good workshop story does, stirred up some debate. But I've held Nalo Hopkinson telling me "This was tone perfect" close to my heart, especially after this story received Rejection After Rejection.
This story got seven rejections total, some personal, some not. You can read more about this story's actual journey in this old blog post. At some point I really wondered if any editor would ever want it. But I still liked it, so I kept sending it out. https://isabelyap.com/blog/2015/09/05/three-lessons-from-milagroso
When I sent it to @EngleLaird, I was 100% sure it wouldn't be good enough for @tordotcom. How could I think otherwise? It had been soundly rejected from all the other venues. But it turns out I was wrong; it just needed the right readers. https://www.tor.com/2015/08/12/milagroso-isabel-yap/
From an "audience reception" perspective, Milagroso isn't my strongest work. My kappa story, also published on Tor, is by far my most popular short story--and maybe always will be. But I know Milagroso is a favorite of some of my most beloved readers, and that counts for a lot.
I know it's been taught in classrooms. It was reprinted in @HeightsAteneo, the literary folio of my university back in Manila. And my brilliant editors liked it enough to also include it in my forthcoming @smallbeerpress collection (still up for preorder!) https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781618731821
Writing the story of one's heart, writing about one's culture-it's easy to say, but SO hard to do. I don't know if I would have managed to have that courage, as a young writer, if not for Nalo Hopkinson telling me I could. I didn't need to wait. My Filipino story was GOOD ENOUGH.
An aside: this shows why diversity in the workshop setting matters--among students, but also among instructors. I appreciate, respect, and love all my Clarion 2013 instructors. But did it make a difference to have a queer WoC teaching week two? ABSOLUTELY.
I'll share that my Clarion week 2 was also when we got @crashwong's absolutely incredible The Fisher Queen. At some point that week we confessed to each other that...as queer WoC writers...our one goal that week was STUNT FOR NALO!! (And, ofc, our class.) https://pseudopod.org/2016/05/27/pseudopod-492-the-fisher-queen/
Anyway, I was and always have been the work of many hands generously pushing me along, telling me to keep going. Someday I hope to be the instructor telling a student "I wanted to taste the banana!" and watching them embrace their own words, cultures, wildness in their stories.
Nalo also told us to "ground your stories in the body," and Milagroso was 100% me trying to apply that principle.
Finally: go read Nalo's stories and books. They're sharp, mind-expanding--and very sexy. Here's one, a fairytale retelling, that I love: https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-fiction/the-glass-bottle-trick/
Finally: go read Nalo's stories and books. They're sharp, mind-expanding--and very sexy. Here's one, a fairytale retelling, that I love: https://www.fantasy-magazine.com/new/new-fiction/the-glass-bottle-trick/
