Team Alfar Interviews at PinoyCentric
Via the Bibliophile Stalker:
Nikki and Dean Alfar, both well-known Filipino speculative fiction writers, have interviews up in PinoyCentric.
Nikki wrote about her experiences as a young writer, which were quite fun to read about. Perhaps they’re also something a lot of us can identify with.
At six, Nikki already knew that she was going to be a writer. “I started writing Nancy Drew-type stories, then I moved on to the Sweet Dreams type. I used to get in trouble a lot in school because my notebooks were full of stories but had no notes,” she relates.
“Pretty much from the start, I was really into this whole speculative fiction bent. One of the first novels I read was Stephen King’s Cujo and later The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien,” Nikki remembers.
Her parents were not as encouraging, however. “My mom brainwashed me, ‘If you’re going to be a writer, you will be poor!’ and I didn’t want to be poor. I’m kikay [stylish], so I can’t be poor!” she laughs.
Enrolling at UP Diliman’s creative writing program didn’t provide much encouragement either.
“You know how it is,” she explains, “in grade school and high school, you think you’re very brilliant—and then you get to college and you realize: hey, there are other more brilliant people and you’re just okay!”
Dean talks about advocating speculative fiction:
DFA: Speculative fiction or “spec fic” is the umbrella term we use for the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, surrealism, magical realism, and slipstream fiction. These labels are bookstore labels, and for me, are as artificial as fiction itself. Definitely all fiction is fiction. It’s all make-believe.
I advocate this movement of shifting the paradigm and thus exposing more people to these stories, so that the value of these stories becomes more apparent rather than the status quo, which is they are considered worthless. Academics raise their eyebrows at these stories because they have privileged the mode of realism.
I have no issue with the realist writers. All I’m saying is they should have no issue with us and permit these stories to be published and to be read.
It was interesting to note that if Dean had not been successful as a writer, he would have wanted to be a teacher! Although I daresay he’ll probably be successful as both :)
Those who may be interested in joining the next open session of Litcritters: it’s on July 7, 2007. See Dean Alfar’s post for details.