Q&A with David Guerrero, publisher of Manila Envelope
What was the original intention when you first released Manila Envelope?
Originally, it was just to explain something about the country to people who haven’t been here so the first one we made specifically to be distributed at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It was something that was brought there to give other people from around the world some background about the Philippines because a lot of people didn’t know much. Now, I think the situation’s different, now people know a little bit more but maybe they don’t know too much about the writing. Now, the intention is not really so much for that one narrow audience but more of a general audience; perhaps trying to appeal more to the literary types in various parts of the world.
Why decide on sampling Filipino novelists for the fourth issue?
It felt like an important thing to do, to collect some of these modern storytellers together in one place. It feels like it helps with the understanding and definition of the culture. I think it’s quite a satisfying collection to put together. It feels it could be quite a useful guide and there are other compilations that have come before and that will come afterwards but it’s just the particular focus that we thought was needed.
In Manila Envelope 4, many of the writers are based overseas. What do you think does this say about our literary scene?
It’s interesting. They do say it’s very hard to earn a living as a novelist. I had the privilege (of meeting) F. Sionil Jose sometime back and he said very, very few people can make a living in writing. So perhaps it’s a common trait for some of them, (they) need to go abroad, to find a place where they can write or support themselves by their writing whether it’s with an academic position or some kind of related work that they can do. It seems to be quite hard here so that’s one thing. And perhaps there is a sense in which people who write do take an external validation seriously, someone like Miguel Syjuco who won the Man Asia Literary Prize, it has instantly gained some recognition (for his work). As a nation of readers, people do look to see how some of our authors have been received overseas as well. But that’s something that could change in the future.
What do you think is the difference between the classic Filipino novels and the contemporary ones?
I think with both Jessica (Hagedorn) and Chuck Syjuco, you can see the influence of the exile, or the expat novelists. I’ve read Zack Linmark’s book and lots of others and quite a few of the published novelists do seem to talk a lot about that exile experience, especially in the US. So that seems to be a new dimension to the work that hasn’t been there before. I think that’s a reflection of how being Filipino doesn’t necessarily mean being based in the Philippines anymore and I think there’s a substantial overseas culture and it’s coming through very strongly. I’m sure people will read this and think “Why aren’t there more locally based authors?” And that probably comes back to the same issue of people not being able to support themselves while they do it.
