Stories by M. Evelina Galang
April 1, 1996 5.5 x 8.5 192 pages 978-1-56689-040-3
Filipina American debut author displays the contradictions of Asian American experience with irony & enthusiasm, anger & wit.
The stories in Her Wild American Self focus on Filipina Americansrecent immigrants or first generationand explore what it is to be American and female. Each character struggles with careers, motherhood, sisterhood, and roles within family and society, including the stereotype of the subservient Asian American woman. Neither fully accepting nor rejecting their Eastern and Western traditions, the characters in this collection attempt to come to terms with their bicultural upbringing. Ranging from the title story about a teenager who comes of age and falls from grace all in one tumultuous season, to a story about an artist who finds her medium and leaves her lover, to a story such as the one about a forty-two year old who realizes she has succeeded in establishing herself as her own woman, Her Wild American Self contains a rich and engaging mosaic of stories about contemporary Filipina American women.
About the Author
M. Evelina Galang is the author of Her Wild American Self, One Tribe, and Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery, as well as editor of the anthology Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images. Galang currently directs and teaches the Creative Writing Program at the University of Miami and works with the VONA/Voices: Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation. She has been named one of the most influential Filipinas in the United States by the Filipina Womens Network.