GRAVITIES OF CENTER
by Barbara J. Pulmano Reyes
ARKIPELAGO BOOKS PUBLISHING
ISBN 0-9713423-9-3
71 pages, paperback
Copyright 2003

"Always mindful of the terrible past that still haunts her native country today, Reyes writes with urgency, but her poems contain an anger quite tempered by maturity and dignity. That past also haunts her own personal life in America: her poetry offers an acute look of what new ethnic identity means, but again, without sanctimonious complaints. Even when she writes about that other terrible topic, love, she is devastating in conveying loss, but without reaching for sentimental sympathy. At once tender and tough, her precise voice shatters us."
Nguyen Qui Duc, Host/Producer, Pacific Time Public Radio

"Intelligent, energetic, and inventive, Reyes's writing is nourished by the confluence of cultures at which she resides as an urban twenty-first century Pilipina American. Seen as both a post-colonial chronicle and an intimate exploration of self, community, and history, Gravities of Center hovers between conventionalpoetry or prose, bending the genres until what emerges is a work that will illuminate us like 'garnet crystalline fire ... burning, to light the way back home' ."
Jaime Jacinto, author of HEAVEN IS JUST ANOTHER COUNTRY

http://www.arkipelagobooks.com
http://barbarajanereyes.com

OOV Bookshelf 2003

DECEMBER 2003 FEATURE Towards a Cultural Community: Identity, Education and Stewardship in Filipino American Performing Arts by Remé Grefalda, Lucy Burns, Anna Alves and Theodore Gonzalves Understanding Mindanao Conflict by Patricio P. Diaz Not Home, But Here: Writing from the Filipino Diaspora edited by Luisa Igloria The Right Place and Other Stories by Rodney Dakita Garcia Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror by Frank Ephraim A Watch in the Night by Denis Murphy Lakas and the Manilatown Fish by Anthony D. Robles Gravities of Center by Barbara J. Pulmano Reyes TRI/VIA by Michelle Naka Pierce and Veronica Corpuz JULY 2003 FEATURE Ang Balabal ng Diyos / Ang Silid ng Makasalanan by Rosario de Guzman Lingat Love Gathers All by Singaporean and Filipino writers APRIL 2003 FEATURE Not My Bowl of Rice by E.R. Escobar Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard JANUARY 2003 FEATURE The Stranded Whale by Linda Ty-Casper Monster by Joel Tan