A Night with Ninotchka Rosca

By Teng Mangsansakan

DAVAO CITY — I met award-winning writer Ninotchka Rosca (State of War, Twice Blessed) last night. She, along with six Filipino American women, all members of Gabriela Network, had a three-day exposure in a Moro community in Mandug District of Davao City. After their eye-opening and inspiring interaction with members of a community displaced by banana plantation expansion and the development of a golf course, they met with the local literati, creative writing students and members of media.

One of them, a DJ from California, read a beautiful poem, her reflection actually, of the three days and nights she lived in a depressed community with only the barest necessities. Then one by one, they gave their impressions, opinions and contemplations of what they collectively, and individually, experienced.

Everybody was eager to hear Ninotchka’s words. When the open forum started, everybody fired off their questions. Everybody listened intently as she dispensed her wisdom.

When asked about her feminist writing, she explained that “I am not a woman writer. I am not a feminist writer. I am a writer…I am not a writer with a label.”

A writer, she said, should be politicized, but that does not mean that her writing should also be politicized, even though writing itself is a political act.

One of the students asked her to give advise to young people who want to become writers. Her direct reply was that any writer striving for greatness should first and foremost be faithful to the integrity of the story and its form. “Know all the rules, structures, conventions. After that, you break them one by one.”

At the end of the open forum, somebody in the audience suggested a game. The audience will give her a word or phrase and then she should say the first word that comes to mind.

Vagina. “Beautiful.”
GMA. “Boring.”

The third word was telling, maybe a bit of a challenge to writers today.

Current Philippine literature. “Where?”