Cecilia Manguerra Brainard thrills UST audience at CCWLS lecture

The UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS) in cooperation with the UST Publishing House, successfully hosted an informal lecture titled “Storytelling and Sketching: A Talk on the Creative Arts” featuring Filipino-American writer Cecilia Manguerra Brainard on February 22, 2019, 3:00-5:00 PM, at the Tanghalang Teresita Quirino, Benavides Bldg., University of Santo Tomas.

Starting her lecture with how she became a creative writer at a very early age, Brainard also shared how she shifted focus on her latest artistic interest which is sketching, a talent she discovered almost by accident after reading a how-to-do sketching manual she bought in an arts supply store.
Always charming, Brainard during the open forum moderated by Ma. Ailil B. Alvarez, drew into the lively conversation with the UST Secretary General Rev. Fr. Jesús M. Miranda, Jr. O.P., UST CCWLS Director Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo and Assistant Director Ralph Semino Galán, as well as a good number of Creative Writing, Literature and Journalism majors.
Brainard is the award-winning author of nine books, including the internationally-acclaimed novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Magdalena, Vigan and Other Stories, Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories, Philippine Woman in America, Woman with Horns and Other Stories, Cecilia’s Diary 1962-1968, Fundamentals of Creative Writing, and Out of Cebu: Essays and Personal Prose.

Her first novel will be reissued by the UST Publishing House later this year. The awards Brainard has received include a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American
youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District.

She has also been awarded by the Filipino and Filipino American communities she has served. She received the prestigious Filipinas Magazine Arts Award, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has received several travel grants in the Philippines, from the USIS (United States Information Service).
A sought-after speaker, Brainard has lectured and performed extensively worldwide in universities and literary arts organizations, including University of California in Los Angeles, University of Southern California, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN International, Beyond Baroque, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She teaches creative writing at the Writers Program of UCLA-Extension.

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