11 - White Turtle

Dancer, writer, visual artist, academic. 

Merlinda Bobis is a Philippine-Australian writer born in Legaspi City in the Philippines. She attended Bicol University High School and graduated in Aquinas University in her college time. After taking her first degree in Aquinas University, she took up 2 post-graduate degrees in University of Santo Tomas and University of Wollongong in Australia (1 for each university). She now lives in 

Australia.

She writes both in Filipino and English. Her works integrates the traditional culture of the Philippines with modern immigrant experience. Her work "White Turtle" won 2 awards: the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Collection of Australian Short Stories and the 2000 Philippine National Book Award.The White Turtle is a collection of short stories that has various kinds of humor and emotion.  

Like the short story "Before The Moon Rises" shows how the war impacts the Filipino citizens. Another is "Colours", it tells a story about a man who loves his married neighbour. It shows how unrequited love works. A short story still included in the White Turtle is "Jar". "Jar" is a brilliant short story as it shows a story about sexual abuse in the workplace.

Merlinda Bobis has a way of drawing her readers into her stories. Making her readers stimulate their senses with only the use of words. The development of the characters and plot in each of the stories is beautiful. Her stories may be about us, Filipinos but it doesn't make us feel embarrassed. We are more likely to read about it. We can say that one of her style in writing is showing the reality of the world. We just have to open our eyes and realize the things that we are doing.