Jennilee Austria’s story on reunification is second runner-up
Jennilee Austria’s story on reunification is second runner-up
Austria shares the honour with Catherine Hernandez and Karla Comanda. (Photo: JC Bonifacio)
By Charmaine Rodriguez Kara
Filipina Canadian writer Jennilee Austria emerged as second runner-up in the prestigious Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award for 2020 and is set to become a published author of a collection of short stories inspired by an experience that has impacted so many Filipinos in the Canadian diaspora: family reunification.
“Reunification Stories for Caregivers and the Ones Who Love Them” is a collection of linked short stories that examine reunification through various Filipinx lenses: the Canadian-born Filipina who clumsily helps her cousins assimilate in Sarnia’s Chemical Valley; the sea-faring Filipino husband in Osoyoos who vows to make his wife love him after a decade apart; the kundiman-loving grandfather left behind in a Batangas village to mourn his family legacy; the Quezon City sister battling for custody before her nieces join their estranged mother in Nunavut; the non-binary Filipinx teen who finds belonging in Toronto’s Little Manila; and lastly, a chapter from the little caregiver’s son himself, who finally shares everything that he had struggled to say all along, Austria said of her work.
Austria shares the honour of joining the ranks of Scarborough author Catherine Hernandez, who won the award in 2015.
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