The Gods We Worship Live Next Door (Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry) [Paperback]

Bino A Realuyo (Author)

Book Description

Series: Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry | Publication Date: April 7, 2006

The Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry was inaugurated in 2003 to honor the late poet, a nationally recognized writer and a former professor at the University of Utah, and is sponsored by the University of Utah Press and the University of Utah Department of English.

The Gods We Worship Live Next Door is the 2005 prizewinning volume selected by this year's judge, Grace Schulman, distinguished professor of English at Baruch College, City University of New York.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bino A. Realuyo has that rare gift of transforming modern horror into art. In The Gods We Worship Live Next Door he writes of his beleaguered country, the Philippines, in ways that reveal universal truths. The land is vibrant and alive, real with mythical shadows-rituals, dances, work-and, at the same time, racked by persecution and death. The book is passionate without a trace of sentimentality, a compelling account of destruction under a silent god."—Grace Schulman, City University of New York

About the Author

Bino A. Realuyo was born and raised in Manila. He is the author of the acclaimed novel The Umbrella Country. His poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Manoa, The Literary Review, New Letters, and The Nation. He is the recipient of the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: University of Utah Press; 1 edition (April 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874808618
• ISBN-13: 978-0874808612
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A fervent and passionate social change agent, Bino A. Realuyo was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He is the son of a survivor of the Death March and Japanese Concentration Camp in the Philippines during World War 2.

Realuyo is also an educator in underserved communities and author of the award-winning books, The Umbrella Country, and The Gods We Worship Live Next Door. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and magazines including The Nation, The Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, New Letters, and in the recent anthology, Fire in the Soul: 100 Poets for Human Rights.

His literary awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship for fiction, a Van Lier Foundation fellowship for poetry, Urban Artist Grant for fiction, PEN Open Book award for non-fiction, a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers Award" nomination, Valparaiso Foundation fellowship for fiction, a Yaddo fellowship for Poetry, a Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from Poetry Society of America, an Asian American "Member's Choice" Book Award, and a 2009 Philippine National Book Award for Poetry.

He was a co-founder of the Asian American Writers Workshop and is on the faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University's international MFA program in Creative Writing.

Realuyo has a degree in International Relations from the School of International Service at The American University in Washington, DC and Universidad Argentina de La Empresa in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He received his graduate education in Technology, Innovation, and Education from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and was a recipient of a Catherine D. Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship from The Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership.

Inspired by his mother, a former adult learner, he has spent the past 15 years working as a Program Manager and Educator in adult literacy organizations in New York City. Recently, he founded { We Speak America }, a social enterprise that leverages internet-based technology to provide education, training, and work-based literacy for low-wage, low-skilled immigrants in the U.S.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A dark, vivid insight into unjustifiable cruelties and wrongs, July 9, 2006

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gods We Worship Live Next Door (Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

The 2005 winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, The Gods We Worship Live Next Door is a stark free- verse collection. Written by a Manila native who survived the Bataan Death March and a WW II Japanese concentration camp in the Philippines, The Gods We Worship Live Next Door images horrific events in human history with the stark clarity that only art can provide. A dark, vivid insight into unjustifiable cruelties and wrongs. From a Filipino Death March Survivor Whose WW II Benefits Were Rescinded by the US Congress in 1946: 1. I left three years ago. / 2. If you want to know about my rural childhood, ask my survivors. / 3. If you want to know how I was recruited into the United States Army at twenty, ask President Roosevelt. / 4. If you want to know how I ended up in the Death March at twenty-one, ask General MacArthur. / 5. If you want to know how many of my friends perished in the Japanese concentration camps, ask General Homma. / 6. If you want to know how I contracted malaria, beri-beri, dysentery, skin disease, gastrointestinal disease in one month, ask the Japanese Camp Commander. / 7. If you want to know how my military benefits were rescinded at the end of the war, ask President Truman. / 8. If you want to know how I became a 100% disabled veteran, ask my V.A. doctors.