Some Arrivals, But Mostly Departures: Short Stories

Note:  This is a collection of eight of my short stories, with an introduction by F. Sionil Jose.  It was published in Manila by New Day Publishers in 1982. Except for “Dots and Dashes,” all the stories appeared elsewhere originally, in such journals and magazines as Solidarity, Bridge: An Asian American Perspective, Amerasia Journal, FOCUS, GINOO, and The Philippine Times. “Flight“ has also been included in Intsik: An Anthology of Chinese Filipino Writing, edited by Caroline S. Hau (Manila: Anvil Publishing, 2000).

I wrote many of these stories in a fiction-writing class taught by Ed Wolfe in the English Department at the University of Kansas. Four of the stories have won various literary awards–“The Third and Final Dream of Samuel Toepffer” (Second Prize, Kansas University, Spring 1974), “Flight” (First Prize, Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Fall 1976), “Rainbow” (Honorable Mention, Focus magazine, Spring 1976), “Victor and Other Issues” (Third Prize, Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Fall 1977).  I might also mention that portions of “Flight” and “Dots and Dashes” later found their way into my play Mother Tongue.

Availability:  Some Arrivals, But Mostly Departures is now out-of-print, but copies occasionally show up on Amazon.com and even on ebay.  While I myself don’t have extra copies to sell to others, I will be happy to make photocopies for anyone who is really interested.