Have You Eaten Yet? How Incorporating Food Can Deepen Your Fiction
Session 2
Lincoln Hall, LH 1064
11:20 AM - 12:30 PM
When people think about food and writing, they likely think of nonfiction, such as food memoirs, critical essays, and cookbooks. And as Filipino diaspora writers, we’ve probably seen more than one poetic ode to the mango.
But the seemingly mundane act of eating can add so many layers to your story when done well. Just like sex scenes and fight scenes, eating scenes are a way to move along the plot, incorporate sensory detail, develop the world, and tell you more about the characters and their relationships–with food, with themselves, and with the people around them.
For this workshop, we will dissect examples of fictional food writing in different genres, learn three ways to incorporate food in our own writing, and discuss this quote from Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (in writing about Doreen Fernandez):
“The question is not ‘What is Filipino food?’ but ‘How does food become Filipino?’”
About the Facilitator
Mia P. Manansala
Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer and certified book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series, and uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture.
Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @MPMtheWriter or check out her website: www.miapmanansala.com