Bewildering Stories welcomes...

Mia Tijam

Mia has a degree in Creative Writing from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She writes critical essays, is a writers’ workshop fellow and co-editor of the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler. She has published extensively and earned significant honors for her writing.

“Talking With Juanito” is a mysterious story in which Batit talks with someone she calls Juanito. Most of the characters in the story are real in Batit’s life, but Juanito, one suspects, is not.

The story mingles languages very effectively. The subordinating conjunction ta is essential: it means “because, and it’s a bad thing...” And the interjection Ta... ta... recurs frequently. Readers can imagine the “lolas” muttering darkly, “Bad... very bad.”

Mia Tijam’s bio sketch can be found here.

Welcome to Bewildering Stories, Mia. We hope to hear from you again soon and often!