Arts
Irene Suico Soriano might not be sure if she was a Fellow in 2000 or 2001 but she is sure of two things. One is that the road to publication is just as long as it needs to be and more importantly, that picking up hitchhikers in your community is a vital part of the journey. Listen to her tell Fellowship Manager Amanda Fletcher all about it. With guest appearances by Papu and Max. ** A 2001 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow Irene Suico Soriano was born in Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines, in 1969. At eleven years of age, she and her mother immigrated to Los Angeles, California. Her childhood was spent soaking in the neighborhoods of pre-gentrified Downtown LA, East Hollywood, Rampart/Temple, Melrose, and the Wilshire/Vermont corridor. Her poems have appeared in Philippines Free Press; Solidarity Journal; LA Times; Flippin': Filipinos on America (Asian American Writers' Workshop); Babaylan: An Anthology of Filipina and Filipina American Writers (Aunt Lute); Short Fuse: The Global Anthology of New Fusion Poetry (Rattapallax Press); and Disorient Journalzine, which published her chapbook Safehouses as part of their Emerging Writers Chapbook Series. Irene founded and coordinated the Southern California reading series, "Wrestling Tigers: Asian Pacific American Writers Speak" at the Japanese American National Museum and was literary curator for the Los Angeles Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture (FPAC). She was featured in the Los Angeles Times for her curatorial participation in the ground-breaking NEA-funded World Beyond Poetry Festival that featured over 100 poets from the diverse communities of LA, and co-produced, as part of the LA Enkanto Art Collective, the CD In Our Blood: Filipina/o American Poetry & Spoken Word from Los Angeles. Irene's first full-length collection of poems PRIMATES FROM AN ARCHIPELAGO was published by Rabbit Fool Press in 2017.