Many Ways of Being Muslim: Fiction by Muslim Filipinos, The

by Coeli Barry

November 2010

241 (xxii+219) pp., 13x19 cm, paperback

For sale in Thailand only

This landmark collection brings together for the first time twenty-two short stories by nine Muslim Filipinos written over nearly seven decades, beginning in the 1940s. Muslims are a minority in the predominantly Catholic Philippines and the integration of Muslims in this nation has been uneven. As the stories in this anthology reflect, there is no simple or single way to capture the complex ways Muslims from different backgrounds—but especially those from the college-educated middle classes—interact with and help define contemporary Filipino identity and intellectual life.

Few Muslims have seen their work anthologized in major short story collections in the Philippines. This anthology, possibly the largest assemblage of Muslim Filipino fictionists, is intended to give readers in the Philippines and elsewhere a chance to read and enjoy their writings.

About the Editor

Coeli Barry teaches at Mahidol University’s Center for Human Rights Studies and is a Senior Advisor on the Culture and Rights Project at the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Center in Bangkok. She has also been a Visiting Research Fellow with the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore.

Highlights

One of the first anthologies of contemporary Muslim Filipino writers
Traces the development of short story writing in the Philippines from 1941–2008 by Muslim Filipinos writing in English
Captures the different sociological and cultural experiences of Muslim Filipinos across three generations