Features>Fiction
The Swan Song
Even while he was still a medical student, Manny must have already had sex with more women than most of his classmates had shaken hands with. But he was discrete and never talked about his
The Visitor
While often raw and confused, the memory of childhood intimacies—no matter how unformed—linger well into adulthood. Years or even decades later, reconnections are forcibly attempted. Time, we
Trese: Masquerade
Its pace, furious. Its wild plotting, teeming with references to Philippine mythology. Its story, filled with hidden depths. Welcome to detective Alexandra Trese’s world, where the absolute
Hunger
Grandmother was a maestro in the kitchen; Mother was wretchedly willing, but hopelessly lacked flair; Cara, however, was indifferent, even if it meant she was to be “the heir to her [mother’s]
Nighthawks
Eddie attends a United Nations conference in Iowa, and discovers his namesake’s most famous painting is around the corner. Philippines Free Press literary editor and acclaimed fiction writer
Isa
The island of Isa is sinking—or are the waters rising? Once, the inhabitants found contentment in its bounty, but now ominous events have transpired, agitating the cadence of life, unnerving a
The Cheap Legend of Juana Chupacabra
The self-segmenter spun out her tongue into a silky thread as thin as a spider’s web, and inserted it deep into Sheila’s vagina, in a bizarrely macabre demonstration of supernatural cunnilingus.
The Pillar
The Boeing 797 Harrier’s engines sputtered and wheezed in midair. It was showing its age. In the thick smog, the aircraft’s red spotlight moved across the black swirling waters like some giant
Leaks
Frankie Callaghan and Enrico Subido bring their photographs and words to the Rogue table for a photo-essay entitled Leaks. Using Callaghan’s haunting series of urban landscapes—conceptualized
The Lives and Deaths of Beloved Animals
Award-winning Montreal-based writer Miguel Syjuco’s short story explores the unpleasant paradox: while a man is whittled down to his final form by a lifetime of choices, sometimes one singular
It’s Not Me
Like most of her contemporaries, Nema burns the midnight oil as a professional B.P.O. blogger. During the waking hours, she is a bleary-eyed zombie held captive by her dreams. A sibling to twin
Seek Ye Whore
Unlike the urban myth that “Filipinos come quick,” something famously recounted by Lenny Bruce in the first sentence of his autobiography, the notion that Filipina women make great mates or
Bound
Now you have me, and I am helpless before you—tender as a new-sprung shoot, fragile as an evening bloom, hopeless as a seed cast upon the whims of wind.
Soledad’s Sister
A policeman and a girl make the lonely trip in his Tamaraw to the city to retrieve the body of her sister, an OFW who died in Saudi Arabia for unknown reasons. Seeking refuge from the rain, a petty
Awit Kay Rene Magritte
“Sinumang makakita sa batong iyan,” bulong niya nang parang nagdarasal, “ay makaaalam na magwawakas na ang dating daigdig.”
Wish You Were Here
In Tanya T. Lara’s much-awaited return to fiction, she gives us a peek into the world of a woman who has witnessed a heinous crime but is unable to help solve it. Afflicted with Alzheimers, her
Tamagotchi
A lonely domestic helper in Korea finds comfort in Internet cafes, cooking shows, telenovelas, and a small digital pet.
Almost Communicating
It is the turn of the century, and the narrator is in Japan working as a translator when he meets Michiko. They establish a quiet relationship, but when he returns to a Manila in the midst of a
Boss, Ex
It’s Manila in the late 21st century and Bien is about to get married to Sheila—but before he does, he is stopped by a virtual movie microchip vendor in Virra Mall who makes him an offer he
