Congrats to Vida Cruz-Borja!

October 31, 2022

Songs of the Mango and Other New Myths by Vida Cruz Borja (Darling Axe editor)

A huge congrats to Darling Axe editor Vida Cruz-Borja on the upcoming release of her short fiction collection SONG OF THE MANGO AND OTHER NEW MYTHS, published by Ateneo Press, Nov 2022.

A diwata brings a grieving slave's brother back to life as a mango tree. Two writers write their ideal lovers into existence with ink from a mangkukulam. A kapre and a farmgirl play out a tale as old as time in Spanish colonial Philippines. A girl with a magical heritage must rescue a bumbling cartographer from the hidden city of Biringan. Maria Makiling opens a pop-up cafe with human heartbreak on the menu.

In Song of the Mango and Other New Myths, Vida Cruz-Borja brings stories woven from elements of classical myths and folklore from the Philippines and other parts of the world, as well as from visions of the modern and of the future. In words richly reimagined and reinvented, these "new myths" explore hidden depths from flawed characters who strive to search for a just and equal world, whether that may be in the realm of ordinary humans or the terrain of magical creatures.

Vida Cruz-Borja is a Filipina writer, editor, artist, and conrunner. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, PodCastle, and various anthologies. She has won the IGNYTE Award and been nominated, longlisted, and recommended for the Hugo Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the James Tiptree Jr. (now Otherwise) Award. She is an alumna of the 2014 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop in San Diego, as well as of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop, the Iligan National Writers Workshop, and the Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Writers Workshop. Vida lives in Manila with her husband, their dogs, and a library full of books, art supplies, and tarot decks. Find her on Twitter (@laviecestmoi) or visit her website (vidacruz.org).

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