Author Event: Being Filipino in Aotearoa, with Monica Macansantos and Joseph Trinidad

Come along to this very special one-off author event with acclaimed Filipino writers Joseph Trinidad and Monica Macansantos. These fabulous writers will be talking about their personal experiences of being Filipino in Aotearoa. Both writers are fêted for their incisive, compelling, illuminating prose. Expect an enthralling event with revelations and deep insights, that will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural factors that influence and create writers. We are also thrilled that Dr Grace Gassin, Curator Asian New Zealand Histories at Te Papa, will be leading and hosting this very special event.
Location: Ngā Paiaka | Bleachers (Ground Floor)
Meet the Authors:
Joseph Trinidad is a Filipino writer who lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. His work has been featured in Landfall, North & South, Te Papa, The Spinoff, Turbine | Kapohau and with Migrant Zine Collective. He was the winner of the 2023 Adam Foundation Prize from the International Institute of Modern Letters and of the 2023 Asian Ink from Playmarket. In his debut essay collection, Lucky Creatures (2026), he explores the lessons of his grandmother’s chicken farm and his grandfather’s lucky golden fish; the vibrancy of his home country and its rites of passage, and seeks to answer the eternal question: 'Was the move worth it?'. Lucky Creatures was awarded the inaugural 2024 Sarabande Prize in the Essay.
Monica Macansantos is the author of the essay collection, Returning to My Father's Kitchen (Northwestern University Press, 2025), and the story collection, Love and Other Rituals (2022). Her awards include a 2024-25 Shearing Fellowship with the Black Mountain Institute of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a 2025 Marguerite & Lamar Smith Fellowship with the Carson McCullers Centre in Columbus, Georgia. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, The Hopkins Review, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, and The Bennington Review, and has been recognized as Notable in the Best American Essays series. Her latest book of essays, Returning to My Father's Kitchen, is about her odyssey toward home, in the wake of the loss of her poet father: "Feeling untethered after her beloved father passes away while she is living abroad, Macansantos decides to return to the Philippines to regain her bearings. But with her father gone and her adult life rooted in the United States and New Zealand, can the land of her birth still serve as a place of healing?".