The Philippines Graphic Reader
The first and only magazine on Philippine literature in English
LET YOUR SHORT STORY OR POEM SHINE!
Cover
STUDENT’S CORNER
When the Philippines Graphic Reader started in February 2022, it became the first and only nationally-circulated, monthly, literary magazine in the country devoted to...
Fiction
ISSA, ONE AND ONLY
I am Issa—the one and only. My parents named me Juan, which in English sounds like “one.” In Tagalog, “one” is isa, just like...
Philippines Graphic Reader
Arranging Furniture at Midnight
I move chairs at midnight,
Adjusting my wife’s preference
Which one is facing which.
The cats are doing football
Banging on tables and walls.
All six of them,
Siamese versus...
Fiction
The Times, They Are A-Changing
Saturday. The afternoon’s stifling heat is rising in waves. Rogie crosses the road and pushes the gate of the compound of Dr Rieu’s residence....
Philippines Graphic Reader
Patterns
The chisel as creator
Lends shape to wood, to stone.
Shape being the truth of character,
Reality of body and bone,
Sculpted fact of form,
The confidence of matter.
The...
Fiction
Long before Darkness, Or, The Night Ileana Fell in Love
She had lived in the shadows all her life. Literally this meant the shadows of the mountains in the rural town where she was...
Philippines Graphic Reader
Indignation as Elegy
An elephant without a face greeted me
on Facebook today,
his trunk and tusks
hacked away by poachers eager for ivory.
At first I thought it was a...
Philippines Graphic Reader
All Fall Down
Anatalia Ayala had promised Bellisima Cua that the story and photos about her winning the Volzhacker Prize would appear in the newspaper’s online lifestyle...
Fiction
Eight Legs Is All
It’s unfair. With small bodies, they move in all directions. Once a leg gets broken—which usually happens when they resist to be caught—they have...
Fiction
The King who Had Nothing
“What makes a man a king?” A young pauper asked as he sat on his father’s lap. They sat meekly on the side of...
Philippines Graphic Reader
The News of You
Briefly, just after college, I left my parents’ house, thinking independence was a priceless thing.
It was worth it, I liked to remind myself, especially...
Philippines Graphic Reader
THE FIREFLIES
This tale is for Mark Brownrigg
It had been a strange week in this village on top of the Antipolo hills. The days were cool,...
Philippines Graphic Reader
Don’t Follow Me, I Don’t Even Know Where I’m Going
“The past is not the past. The future doesn’t exist. It’s a made-up idea. Every mapping what we do of the future is a...
Philippines Graphic Reader
NIGHT ADDICT
For months following the death of his father, the boy did not sleep. Not a single wink for a single hour, every day, every...
Philippines Graphic Reader
Examination
It was two p.m. on a weekday, and she was in the city, in leather shoes that pinched, a hot polyester acrylic blend blouse...
Philippines Graphic Reader
Killing Trees Softly
They were killing us softly it hurt so bad.
Softly, slowly, exceedingly painful. Think of an open wound left to rot under the sun. Dust and...
Philippines Graphic Reader
Three Baggies, One for Each of Us
“Did you get it?” Tobi asked, though he already knew the answer just by the look on Jimwel’s face.
“Three baggies, one for each of...
