About Me
Ricco Villanueva Siasoco is a writer, educator, and activist. He received his MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and has taught at Boston College, Columbia University, and the Massachusetts College of Art. Ricco has received fellowships from The Center for Fiction, Lambda Literary, and The National Endowment for the Humanities. He is an advisory board member of Kundiman, a national literary organization dedicated to Asian American literature. Ricco lives in San Francisco. The Foley Artist is his first book.
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The Foley Artist is now available as an e-book!
Order your Kindle version: https://www.amazon.com/Foley-Artist-Ricco-Villanueva-Siasoco-ebook/dp/B086Z46YM2/ These nine stories give voice to the intersectional identities of women and men in the Filipino diaspora in America: a straight woman attends her ex-boyfriend's same-sex marriage in coastal Maine; a college-bound teenager encounters his deaf uncle in Manila; Asian American drag queens duke it out in the annual Iowa State Fair; a seventy-nine-year-old foley artist recreates the sounds of life, finally unable to save himself. |
What's New?
Click on the links to listen to a podcast, watch video, join upcoming events, and read Ricco's published work.
Order Your Copy Now!
The Foley Artist, my first book of stories, is available now on Amazon, IndieBound, and from your local bookstore.
The Foley Artist, my first book of stories, is available now on Amazon, IndieBound, and from your local bookstore.
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Upcoming Events - Fall 2021
A Series of Fantastic Writers! The Brown Handler Residents/Friends of the Library
Sat Oct 23rd 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Manny's, 3092 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA map
“There would be no libraries without writers--and there would be no writers without libraries. We're very proud to help provide, in a city increasingly unaffordable to artists, a space in which our local writers can work, to ensure the survival of both." -Daniel Handler
Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and Litquake are excited to host the writers chosen for the 2021 class of the Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler Writer’s Residency. These five writers spend a year at Friends’ studio to pursue their writing projects and share their talents with the community. The Residency, funded through Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler's generosity, is designed to nurture emerging and established writers by guaranteeing them access to free, adequate space and bringing them into direct collaboration with the Library for literary activities. This program honors the long connection between the public Library and the literary world.
The Brown Handler Residence at Friends of the San Francisco Public Library nurtures emerging local by providing free writing space and opportunities to collaborate with the San Francisco Public Library. Join us to celebrate their latest works! Free.
This program is indoors. Mask and proof of vaccination are required at the door. Please read the requirements at litquake.org/covid. Register here-- www.eventbrite.com/e/friends-of-the-sfpl-present-the-handler-brown-residents-tickets-176132496037
HOT OFF THE PRESS LITERARY READING
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hot-off-the-press-literary-reading-with-9-filipino-filam-authors-tickets-166316514171
OCTOBER 9, 2021
5:00-6:00 pm PST
The Hot Off the Press (HOTP) Literary Reading, a program of the Filipino American International Book Festival, will be via Zoom this 2021. The event, sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library and PAWA will be held on Saturday, October 9, 2021, 5-6:30 p.m. PT. Check Events at sfpl.org, for the Zoom link, or email [email protected].
Hosted and Moderated by author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Hot Off the Press Literary Readings have been showcasing Filipino and FilAm authors and their new books since 2011.
This year’s HOTP Literary Reading includes nine Filipino and Filipino American authors: Gina Apostol, Jhoanna Lynn Cruz, George Gonzaga Deoso, Caroline Sy Hau, Mae Respicio, Randy Ribay, Brian Ascalon Roley, Ricco Siasoco, and Lara Stapleton.
OCTOBER 12, 2021
7:00 PM
ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alternative-histories-registration-169190444173?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Co-presented by The National Book Critics Circle
Join author Ricco Villanueva Siasoco in a conversation with three debut novelists about the process of building alternative histories of the American West, from the Gold Rush through World War I. Patty Enrado’s A Village in the Fields highlights a compelling but buried piece of American history: the Filipino-American contribution to the farm labor movement; Rishi Reddi’s epic Passage West, Los Angeles Times’ Best California Book of 2020, explores a Punjabi sharecropper family in California during World War I, as they work and live alongside their Mexican in-laws and Japanese neighbors; while Tom Lin’s debut novel The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, transforms the genre of the Western in a story of revenge for forced labor in the American railroad’s expansion. FREE, $5-10 suggested donation (pre-registration required)
This program is indoors. Mask and proof of vaccination are required at the door. Please read the requirements at litquake.org/covid.
OCTOBER 19, 2021
BOOK LAUNCH: LARA STAPLETON'S "THE RUIN OF EVERYTHING"
SAVE THE DATE! Oct 19th, 5 pm PT. Celebrating the launch of my friend Lara Stapleton's stunning collection THE RUIN OF EVERYTHING. I mean, look at that amazing book cover ;)
Buy your copy now: https://www.amazon.com/Ruin-Everything-Lara-Stapleton/dp/173449655X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1630179113&refinements=p_27%3ALara+Stapleton&s=books&sr=1-1
Podcasts - Spring 2021
Association of Asian American Studies Book Awards 2021: Xuan Juliana Wang and Ricco Villanueva Siasoco by New Books in Asian American StudiesJust aired: the latest episode of The JAAS Podcast, the third episode of a four-part series featuring the winners and honorable mentions of the 2021 Book Awards for the Association for Asian American Studies - AAAS. This episode features two of the winners in Creative Writing Prose: Xuan Juliana Wang, whose collection Home Remedies explores the new generation of Chinese diasporic wanderers, and Ricco Siasoco, whose collection The Foley Artist provides a new treatment of queer Filipinx diasporic lives.
What a joy to be interviewed by Chris Patterson for the Association for Asian American Studies - AAAS podcast about my story collection! A close reader/reading is a gift. Thanks, Chris! Click here to listen to the AAAS Podcast!
Blackstage Podcast
What a pleasure to be on the BlackStage podcast with my friend and scholar Brennan DuBose, talking about Asian American history and anti-Asian hate after the murders of six Asian women in Atlanta last week. Thanks for the opportunity to talk about the model minority myth, solidarity among African American and Asian American folks, and how we practice a pedagogy of hope #StopAAPIHatee
Click here to listen: https://lnkd.in/gtJxJ9X
Book Tour 2020
Monday, September 7, 2020
SAN MATEO COUNTY LIBRARIES PRESENTS A VIRTUAL BOOKFEST
5pm-6pm Pacific Time
https://www.facebook.com/events/889831934840737/
Featuring Irenosen Okojie, London-based author & winner of the 2020 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, Murzban Shroff, Mumbai-based writer & recipient of the John Gilgun Fiction Award, and Ricco Siasoco, San Francisco-based author and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow. Hosted by San Mateo County Poet Laureate Aileen Cassinetto.
We will be hosting a Watch Party on this page under the Discussion tab. Or join via Zoom! Email smcpoetlaureate @ smcl.org BEFORE September 3 for details. MORE
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Daly City Public Library Celebrates Local Authors: A Virtual Bookfest
"The Conquered Sits at the Bus Stop, Waiting" by Veronica Montes
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86433048230?pwd=QW4rZlpjazdUejVoVitmYmpBWmdvUT09
Passcode: 425855
Friday, October 2, 2020
Singapore Literary Festival
5:00-6:00 pm PST; 8:00–9:00 pm EST
The Political Possibilities of the Short Story:
Nuraliah Norasid and Ricco Villanueva Siasoco
Moderated by Inez Tan
Co-presented by The Southeast Asian Studies program (SEATRIP) at the University of California-Riverside)
Not long enough to diagnose the ills of a society, nor short enough to express the intensity of an emotion, the short story yet offers its own distinct possibilities for political thinking and re-thinking. Two terrific practitioners of the literary form, Nuraliah Norasid (The Gatekeeper) and Ricco Villanueva Siasoco (The Foley Artist) read from their work and discuss the political uses of the short story.
PAST EVENTS
June 2020 - CANCELLED
PRIDE BOOK CLUB
Goldman Sachs
NEW YORK, NY
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
WINE-ING ABOUT BOOKS
Join us for our last (for now) online book readings this Wed 6/24! Wine-ing About Books at 4:20PM PST with writer, educator and activist Ricco Villanueva Siasoco reading and discussing his book of interlinked short stories, “The Foley Artist.”
Presented by Bel Canto Books
LONG BEACH, CA
Thursday, May 21, 2020
READING AND WORKSHOP AT BREARLEY SCHOOL
Co-Presented by Brearley Upper School Creative Writing Club, Asian Awareness and Q&A (LGBTQ)
NEW YORK
Sunday, May 17, 2020, 3-5 pm - CANCELLED
READING WITH JEE LEONG KOH
Bureau of General Services—Queer Division
NEW YORK
April 29, 2020
GUEST LECTURE: DUTERTE AND PHILIPPINE POLITICS
Hosted by Ailish Hopper and Goucher College Peace Studies Program
BALTIMORE
Thursday, April 23, 2020
GUEST LECTURE: CREATIVE WRITING
Hosted by Sarah Gambito and Fordham University
NEW YORK
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
GUEST LECTURE: FILIPINO AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Hosted by Joe Bernardo and Loyola Marymount University
LOS ANGELES, CA
Thursday, April 16, 2020
GUEST LECTURE: ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Hosted by Lynne Anderson and English Language Learning Program at Boston College
BOSTON, MA
Thursday, April 16, 2020 - CANCELLED
READING WITH GRACE TALUSAN, AUTHOR OF THE BODY PAPERS, AND MIA ALVAR, AUTHOR OF IN THE COUNTRY
Hosted by Jhoanna Belfer and Bel Canto Books
LONG BEACH, CA
Saturday, March 7, 2020, 12:10 pm - 1:25 pm
ASSOCIATED WRITING PROGRAMS CONFERENCE
"Lambda Literary Fellows on Transnational and Intersectional Queer Fiction. (Serkan Gorkemli, Natasha Dennerstein, Javi Fuentes, Melissa Nigro, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco)"
Room 217A, Henry B. González Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Recent fiction has increasingly featured diverse local and global representations of queer identities. But the concept of queerness also conveys a nonnormative, nonessentialist, anti-identity stance. Mindful of this inherent tension, this panel of 2018 Lambda Literary fellows engages with the following questions: What forms does, and can, queerness take in fiction? And what roles do nationality and intersectionality play in how queer writers explore questions of identity?
SAN ANTONIO, TX
Wednesday, February 12, 2020, 3:00 pm
UC RIVERSIDE WRITERS' WEEK
Writers Week is the longest-running, free literary event in California and features the most renowned authors of our day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Free and open to the public.
RIVERSIDE, CA
Monday, January 27, 2020
CHADWICK SCHOOL
Hosted by Jake Williamson and English Department
PALOS VERDES PENINSULA, CA
Saturday, January 18
SECOND SATURDAY READING SERIES
Hosted by Singapore Unbound
NEW YORK
I am so excited to join my publisher Gaudy Boy, for the Second Saturdays Reading Series, a monthly gathering in New York City for the reading of Singaporean and American literatures. Held in different intimate venues around the city, the readings feature established and emerging writers. Second Saturdays has featured Vijay Seshadri, Madeleine Thien, Min Jin Lee, Gina Apostol, Dale Peck, Monique Truong, Jericho Brown, Naomi Novik, Chinelo Okparanta, Martha Cooley, Dan Feng Tan, Amanda Lee Koe, and Jeremy Tiang, among others. Besides writers, they have also featured other artists, such as singer Phillip Cheah, ceramicist Hong-Ling Wee, filmmaker Kirsten Tan, and chef Kian Lam Kho.Each gathering begins with a potluck and an open reading. All are welcomed. Please write to Jee Leong Koh at [email protected] for details of the next reading.
Tuesday, January 14
READING & GUEST LECTURE
Hosted by Hannah Oberman-Breindel, Asian American Literature
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
NEW YORK
Saturday, December 20
MIDWEST BOOK LAUNCH
Hosted by Third Place Gallery
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
Join me and poets Sun Yung Shin and Ed Bock Lee for a midwest book launch of The Foley Artist! Music by DJ Manila Rice.
Tuesday, December 3, 7:00 PM
A CONVERSATION WITH ANGELA GARBES, AUTHOR OF LIKE A MOTHER: A FEMINIST JOURNEY THROUGH THE SCIENCE AND CULTURE OF PREGNANCY
Hosted by The Hugo House
SEATTLE, WA
Wednesday, November 13, 4:30 PM
READING AND CONVERSATION: THE FOLEY ARTIST
RSVP here!
Hosted by the Asian American Studies and Creative Writing Programs at Boston College
Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences
Chestnut Hill, MA
Tuesday, November 12
A CONVERSATION WITH GRACE TALUSAN, AUTHOR OF THE BODY PAPERS
Hosted by the Asian American Center at Tufts University
Medford, MA
Monday, November 11
BOOK TALK: PHILLIPS ANDOVER ACADEMY
Hosted by English Dept., Gay Straight Alliance, Asia Society, and SEA
Phillips Andover Academy
Andover, MA
Tuesday, November 5, 3:30 PM
THE FOLEY ARTIST: READING AT UC RIVERSIDE
RSVP here!
Hosted by Dr. Sarita See
University of California
Riverside, CA
Tuesday, October 29, 7:30 pm
HOMO-CENTRIC READING SERIES
Hosted by Hank Henderson
Come be a part of L.A.'s only ongoing LGBTQ reading series at Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park. Stories has been included on several 'Best Bookstores' lists, including the LA Weekly and Time Out. Come early to see the reasons they completely deserved a spot on those lists!
Stories Books & Cafe
1716 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, October 13, 4:00 PM
CLOSING PLENARY: FILIPINO INT'L BOOK FESTIVAL
(We Are) Bulosan's Children: Growing Up in the Aura and Shadow of America is in the Heart, Growing Filipinx Narrative in the 21st Century.
With Eileen Castillo, Ricco Siasoco, Eugene Igloria, Malaka Gharib, Christina Querrer, Jason Bayani
San Francisco, CA
Saturday, October 12, 4:00 PM
THE 5TH FILIPINO AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL
RSVP here!
Hot Off the Press Literary Readings
Hosted by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
San Francisco Main Library
San Francisco, CA
Friday, October 4, 6:30 PM
THE FOLEY ARTIST: BOOK LAUNCH AND PINOY PARTY
RSVP here!
Ricco Siasoco in conversation with the magnificent and benificent Jessica Hagedorn!
Joined by friends Sarah Gambito & Joseph O. Legaspi
Music by DJ Un-G
Asian American Writers' Workshop
New York, NY
FUTURE DATES
February 2021
WORDS@ MANOA LITERARY SERIES
University of Hawai’i, Manoa
Hosted by the Creative Writing Program at the U. Of Hawai’i Manoa
STAY TUNED for upcoming readings in:
- Charlotte, NC
- Detroit
- Washington DC
Email Ricco at [email protected] for more information.
REVIEWS, INTERVIEWS, & RECENT PRESS
Filipino/a/* American History Month (FAHM) Reading List: The Lift Up podcast’s guide to fiction, nonfiction, & poetry by Pilipin* American writers
by Vina Orden, Oct 19, 2020
The Foley Artist: Stories by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco: Characters drive this debut short story collection — from two waitresses at a Chinese restaurant in Des Moines, Viva and Barbarella, “a linebacker of a drag queen”; to Thomas, who fights his attraction to men by asserting his masculinity as a high school wrestling coach; to an English professor George, who’s forced to confront a past violence when a current student and onetime victim, decides to write about it; to Berong, a Foley artist so immersed in his craft that the human voice “would never hold as much resonance as, say, five carefully placed elevator pings” and who eventually walks out on his loved ones. These stories revolve around family but also speak to larger issues, such as transnational migrations and intergenerational traumas. READ MORE
"Stories that Resonate Beyond the Page," by Serkan Gormkeli
PRISM Magazine, July 2, 2020
Queer literary writing is enjoying unprecedented exposure in the world of publishing, but we need more stories that reflect the racial, ethnic, and geographical diversity in our queer communities. The Foley Artist, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco’s debut collection of short stories, is an important addition to global queer literature thanks to its diverse cast of characters and events. The nine well-crafted, interlinked stories represent queer Asian-American lives and the complications of sexuality in romantic and familial relationships. READ MORE
20 Books to Read for Pride Month
Curated by Fia Zhang Swanson for Kundiman
Here are some of our favorite books by LGBTQIA+ identifying Asian American writers for you to read! Each book links to bookshop.org, where you can purchase a book and also support local independent bookstores. READ MORE
Interview by Tyler Nesler
The Interlocutor, January 27, 2020
Silence is certainly key to “Nicolette and Maribel” and “Deaf Mute,” as you noted. I tend to rely on exposition in my writing, which privileges silence, and wanted to also push myself as a writer to incorporate silence in functional ways to move a story forward. So the moment in the story “The Foley Artist” when Vicente stops in his tracks and sits down on the floor of the video store without speaking surprised me. Vicente’s life work was sound, so his inability to express himself through language hopefully adds another layer of complexity to the story. READ MORE
Up to the Challenge: A Conversation by YZ Chin
The Margins, January 29, 2020
‘I was pushing myself to write from places that terrified me.’ READ MORE
"Ricco Siasoco Emphasizes the Importance of “Third Spaces” by Amber Ting
November 16, 2019, The Phillipian
"Members of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (G.S.A.), South East Asian Club (SEAC), Asian Society, and other students sat in the Office of Community and Multicultural Development (CAMD) in a dialogue with visiting speaker Ricco Siasoco on Monday. Siasoco’s discussion addressed his experiences with intersectionality and his ideas surrounding the topic..."
"Filipinx authors discuss novels, identity at AAC event" by SARAH SANDLOW
November 13, 2019, The Tufts Daily
"Siasoco began the conversation by reading a passage from his book about the meeting of two women. Siasoco said he wanted to write more female characters since his characters were predominantly men. “I have to push myself and inhabit that body, that being, that mentality, so it was really important to me to understand and stand in solidarity with women by writing two female characters,” Siasoco said." READ MORE
Read This! Writers' Edition by Alexander Chee
San Francisco Public Library, September 2019
Q: "Are there stories you'd like to see written that aren't out there right now?"
A: "This is a very hard question to answer, because it is so hard to know what you can’t see in some ways. But this is in fact what I teach to my students. What have you never seen described? I wrote my first novel, Edinburgh, for example, in part because I had never seen a Korean American gay man as the narrator of a novel. I made the character like me in part to insist that after a lifetime of being asked to believe my existence was too complicated for literature, that I existed. I exist. I have stories to tell. So for example, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco’s forthcoming debut collection of stories, The Foley Artist: Stories, is one of those—it has Asian and Asian American queer characters unlike any I’ve seen anywhere in books, just in life." READ MORE
"Humanity, Diversity & resistance in the arts" by Alfred A. Yuson
The Philippine Star, October 21, 2019
"So many books, so little time. Once again, this disproportion came into sorry focus during my brief participation at the 5th Filipino American International Book Festival held at the San Francisco Main Library from Oct. 11 to 13. Organized biennially by the Philippine American Artists & Writers Inc. (PAWA), this year’s fest had the theme “Isang Mundó: Humanity, Diversity, and Resistance in the Arts” — with over 80 writers from several countries and all over the USA converging for readings, panel discussions and book signings."
READ MORE
Selected Publications
Wrestlers Fifth Wednesday Screaming Monkeys (Coffee House Press, 2003) Growing Up Filipino (PALH 2003) The Foley Artist Drunken Boat Take Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacific America (AAWW, 2001) Deaf Mute North American Review
Pinaysessay
AGNI Spring 2016 |
Dandyfiction
Post Road Spring 2015 |
The Rice Bowlfiction
Memorious March 2005 |
Contact Me
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Interested in a book club Q&A? A campus visit with students of color or students in your English course? Speaker for Asian American Heritage Month?
Drop me a note at [email protected] |
The Foley Artist: Stories
$16.00
"A collection like a circus of daredevils. . . . A bravura debut." --Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
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A compelling debut for fans of the Filipino America brought to life in fiction by Elaine Castillo and Mia Alvar.
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At once deliciously bizarre and painfully familiar, The Foley Artist introduces a vital new voice to Asian American literature. Ricco Villanueva Siasoco's powerful debut collection opens new regions of American feeling and thought as it interrogates intimacy, foreignness, and silence in an absurd world.
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These nine stories give voice to the intersectional identities of women and men in the Filipino diaspora in America: a straight woman attends her ex-boyfriend's same-sex marriage in coastal Maine; a college-bound teenager encounters his deaf uncle in Manila; Asian American drag queens duke it out in the annual Iowa State Fair; a seventy-nine-year-old foley artist recreates the sounds of life, but is finally unable to save himself.