Zeny May Recidoro
I began to seriously consider writing as a thing I wanted to do, as a vocation, when I was thirteen. Our English language teachers asked us to write an essay, which was then assessed, and the kid who wrote the best entry was going to be announced on Recognition Day during the Fair Week.
I was the kid who got recognized and it felt great.
It also felt great to write that essay because as an early teen writing made me comfortable expressing myself and, by virtue of having my thoughts read by my teachers and peers, I felt that I was heard.
As a young person growing up in the Philippines, I also saw writing as a way to distinguish myself in a culture that for the most part values talent in sports, performance (dancing and singing), playing instruments, or the visual arts.
It’s been roughly twenty-one years and I’m still writing. I continue to produce stories and consume them. Having moved to the United States, I am now what is considered a diaspora writer.
My feelings towards writing haven’t changed though my motives have. It’s less about self-expression and the desire to be perceived in a specific way (a side-glance filled with longing), and more about creating a reference to a life and world that is either fading away or no longer exists.
Iridescence: A New Wives Tale (e-book)
I write stories that retain the memories, experiences and sensations of growing up in Manila in the late 90s and early 2000s, while adapting to and assessing my response to how the world outside my mind and body is changing. I write against forgetting who I was, am, and will be.
I write about lives and cultures from the Philippines which I believe ought to continue existing and thriving.