Grace Talusan is a Filipino American writer. Her 2019 memoir, ''The Body Papers'', won the

Restless Books Restless Books is an independent, non-profit publisher located in Brooklyn, New York. Restless publishes "international works of fiction, journalism, memoirs, travel writing, and illustrated books." The press published 15-20 titles a year, includ ...

Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the

Massachusetts Book Award Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

in nonfiction, and was a ''

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'' Editors' Choice selection. Her short story "The Book of Life and Death" was the

Boston Book Festival The Boston Book Festival is an independent nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the name of its main event. The nonprofit was founded in 2009 by Deborah Z Porter, and aims to "celebrate the power of words to stimulate, agitate, ...

's One City One Story selection in 2020. Talusan was born in the Philippines, and during the 1970s, her parents came to Chicago from Manila, as her father, Totoy, finished his medical studies on a student visa, and then they settled in Boston, Massachusetts, when she was 2. Upon expiration of her father's student visa, the family, including Grace and her two brothers, all U.S.-born, were undocumented. She graduated from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and holds an MFA from UC Irvine. She was the Fannie Hurst Writer in Residence at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

and is currently a lecturer in the Nonfiction Writing Program at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Reception

In a ''New York Times'' review, Jennifer Szalai wrote that ''The Body Papers'' "doesn’t track a one-way march to triumph from adversity; Talusan’s essays loop in on themselves, as she retrieves old memories and finds unexpected points of connection." ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' said of ''The Body Papers'', "Moving and eloquent, Talusan’s book is a testament not only to one woman’s fierce will to live, but also to the healing power of speaking the unspeakable. A candidly courageous memoir." In a review in ''NYLON'', Ilana Masad calls the memoir "stunning" and writes, "Grace Talusan is honest and elegant about some of life's most difficult moments."

Works

Books

* ''The Body Papers'' (2019)

Anthologies

* ''Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19'' (2020) * ''And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again'' (2020)

Short stories

"The Book of Life and Death"
(2020)

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American people of Filipino descent American women writers 21st-century American writers Tufts University alumni University of California, Irvine alumni 21st-century American women {{US-writer-stub