Linda Ty-Casper

Award-winning Filipino novelist, Linda Ty-Casper describes her autobiography, LIVES REMEMBERED, A MEMOIR. this way: “This memoir is about the lives of all the people who have become a part of me and made me who I am.”

In her Memoir, Ty-Casper pours her heart into sentences that bring to life the people, places, experiences, and memories that, at the age of 94 remain precious to her. She starts with her earliest memories describing where she lived and the people who populated her world show more then. There is Nanay the Grandmother who had seven children, and who became widowed, moved to Manila with her four daughters, and there played at the gaming tables to help support her family. This grandmother told Linda stories about the Philippine revolution against Spain, the war with the Americans, and who used to tell her, “Someone should write this story, the story of my life.” The young Linda took her grandmother’s words to heart and eventually wrote historical novels. show less

Award-winning Filipina writer, Linda Ty-Casper, who is noted for her historical fiction set in the Philippines, presents a new collection entitled, A River, One-Woman Deep: Stories. The book includes her novella of the same title and short stories.

Her novella is set during the tumultuous Estrada years from 1998 to 2001 when the Philippine president rose to power and was impeached after massive rallies. The main character is a Filipina-American who uncovers a family secret during her visit to show more Manila, a secret caused by another traumatic event in the Philippines -- World War II.

The other stories in her collection are about Filipino and Filipino-American women. These stories, as well as her earlier works, are about characters whose lives have been changed by historical events. So powerful were/are the author's character-driven stories, that her books Fortress in the Plaza and Wings of Stone were banned in the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship. Readers International of London published both novellas.These two novellas continue to be read and studied by Filipinos who are dealing with the current Philippine drug war and extrajudicial killings.

Ty-Casper had graduated from her studies in Law from the University of the Philippines and Harvard when she came across erroneous and biased books at Widener Library. She abandoned Law and became an advocate, through faithfully researched historical fiction, of the Filipino's right to self-definition/determination.

She has authored 16 books and has received the SEA WRITE Award, UNESCO/P.E.N., Rockefeller (Bellagio), Radcliffe Fellowship, among others. Her stories have been published in Antioch Review, The Asia Magazine, Windsor Review, Hawaii Review, Triquarterly, and others.

A River, One-Woman Deep: Stories is published in the US by Philippine American Literary House (PALH); it is simultaneously published in the Philippines by the University of Santo Tomas Press. show less