Hello, Friends and Fam!

We hope you are all enjoying your summer (or whichever season it is you’re in). Wherever you are, stay cool and hydrated.

There’s much to share so let’s get to it!

OUR ADVISORY COMMITTEE

In June 2023, we committed to growing our nonprofit to better serve our community as a press. We are proud to announce a milestone: we now have an advisory committee! We feel honored and grateful to have this diverse group of individuals join us in our mission to publish books on kapwa kinship, social justice, and life-affirming practices. Here are our committee members:

Maileen Dumelod Hamto (she/they/siya) was born in Tondo and raised in Sampaloc, Manila. As a part of the vast global Filipino diaspora, she has called Texas, Oregon, and Colorado her home for the last 32 years. Maileen’s lifelong journey of decolonization is rooted in spirituality. The experience of being uprooted from the homeland inspired inquiry to unlearn a colonial mindset. Professionally, she works as an adviser and strategist for organizations seeking to operationalize racial equity through policy and practice. She is working to integrate awareness of decolonial and Indigenous approaches in the workplace.

In the cultural centers of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe, Maileen shares her home with her partner Eric, child Carmilla, three canine companions, and a multitude of rescued plants. She relishes opportunities to explore the wilds, to pay homage to trees, and to know feathered friends by their songs and calls.

Lizelle Festejo Hsu is a second-generation Filipina-American born and raised in the Bay Area, California. Rooted in her professional and advocacy work in social justice and the belief in the transformational power of first-person narratives, her experiences in spearheading community storytelling initiatives have ranged from scaling library-based adult and family literacy programming to developing youth empowerment through digital storytelling projects leveraging education through technology. Lizelle is also a published writer whose poetry and non-fiction works have appeared in numerous independent print and online literary presses, including Kearny Street Workshop, Kartika Review, Tea Party Magazine, Evil Monito Magazine and Silicon Valley De-Bug Magazine.

Currently, Lizelle leads a digital and experiential brand marketing team at Great Place To Work®, an organization headquartered in Oakland, California whose mission is to help make every place become a great place to work for all.

A magical weekend day for her includes spending an afternoon at the library with her young daughter, Lennie.

Beth Barany is the owner of Barany Consulting, a boutique service and production company, for forward-facing storytellers to flourish in their creative lives. An award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist, Beth Barany writes magical tales of romance, mystery, and adventure about strong heroines who lead by example to empower women and girls to be the heroes of their own lives. As a media maker, Beth runs the podcast, “How To Write the Future: Tips for Writers.” More at BethBarany.com.

For fun, Beth enjoys walking, gardening, doodling, and watching movies and traveling with her husband. They live in Oakland, California with a piano, cats, and over 2,000 books. Naturally.

Marisa Castro (they go by Castro in community) is a Xicanx scholar-organizer based in Sacramento, California. Born and raised in San Jose, California, Castro began their journey in Ethnic Studies as a first-generation college student at San Francisco State University. As a creative, Castro enjoys amplifying stories of communities of color through various mediums. They host a podcast featuring stories from their family and support their wife’s film projects that center the narratives of communities of color.

Castro has dedicated their 10-year teaching career to bringing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to high school students through a social justice and ethnic studies framework. Currently, they are pursuing their Doctorate in Educational Leadership at Sacramento State University. In the future, they also hope to publish their first children's book.

Oona Hatton, Carrie Agasid, and Julienne Villanueva have also pledged their support as advisors. Keep an eye out for their bios in our next post and newsletter.

All of our advisors share our kapwa values and we cannot wait to move forward with their wise counsel! Thank you, Advisory Committee!

PAST EVENTS

IBPA Member Spotlight

In June, the Independent Book Publishers Association featured us on their IBPA Member Spotlight. You might think you already know our press’ story…but you might also find out something new!

Here’s the link: Sawaga River Press – Publishing Books That Celebrate Filipino Culture and History - Independent Book Publishers Association (ibpa-online.org)

IG Entrepinayship Toastmasters

At the end of May, we were invited by Elise Estrera of Vivid Edge to take part in an Entrepinayship Toastmasters Instagram Live interview.

Entrepinayship Toastmasters is a group of fierce and fun-loving Pinay leaders who support each other’s callings and desires to improve their public speaking and/or storytelling skills.

This was our very first IG Live interview and it was exciting! We got to talk about the story of the press’ beginnings and our upcoming books.

AAPIH Month at John Muir Elementary School

In May, we celebrated Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month by reading Jack & Agyu at the John Muir Elementary School in San Bruno, California. It was amazing to meet very engaged kids in different grades. AND I have never met such loud and proud Pinoy kids in a school setting! When I said I'm Filipina, almost half the room cheered, and several pumped their chests. One kid asked if I speak Bisaya and proudly said he does, too. I was also asked a "very important question": "Do you like Jollibee?"

We’re happy to hear they’re adding Jack & Agyu to their library! Thank you, John Muir PTA. Until next time.

South San Francisco Public Library

We also met the children’s books librarians at the South San Francisco Public Library, and they showed us our books on their shelves. Thank you, SSFPL!

YOLO Ethnic Studies Academy Workshop

In June, we participated in the Youth Organizing and Leadership Opportunity (YOLO) Academy Ethnic Studies Workshop in Davis. The YOLO Academy’s purpose is to help develop leadership skills and the use of art expression to strengthen voice and increase civic engagement for the wellness of Native/BIPOC youth, educators, families, and communities. As a community press, we have always been and continue to be guided by the values of diversity, equity, social justice, and belonging. We believe in the relevance of ethnic studies and align ourselves with this movement. We are honored to have our books added to the mix of ethnic studies-oriented books!

UPDATES ON BOOKS

Mungan and Lola

Copies of Mungan and Lola arrived-woohoo!!! We’ve been seeing parts and pieces these last several months so to see the final book in all its glory is such a special moment!

A lot of love and hard work went into this book and we’re so grateful to our community for showing up and staying engaged throughout the process.

Jack & Agyu

The Jack & Agyu reprints will arrive this August. Because this book came out during the pandemic, we have yet to do an official launch to celebrate it. Stay tuned for such a celebration.

Mama, Mama

The second edition of the Mama, Mama, Do You Know What I Like? will also arrive in August. Have we mentioned it has brand new front and back covers and additional front and back matters??? That’s right! Check the photo out…

And what better way to celebrate books about family love than with family! Here we are with family members who inspired us: Lolo Brix who inspired Mama, Mama; Jack who inspired Jack & Agyu; and Ella who inspired Mungan and Lola.

Parti Taym

So many reasons to party! Our first board book, Parti Taym, is now officially our first in a board book series called The Siya Series. The book is set to go to the printer. Unless something unexpected and throws off its timetable, let’s get ready to greet party-loving Siya this November (with a peek of the book in October, in time for Filipino American History Month)!

Siya (pronounced Shah) is the gender-neutral third-person pronoun in some Filipino languages, including Tagalog and Bisaya-Cebuano, two of the three Filipino languages we feature in the series. Binukid, the Bukidnon indigenous language, is the third featured language.

Our Bahandi, Our Wealth

We marvel at the evolution of Our Bahandi, Our Wealth from a “simple” collection of short narratives about our community’s cultural wealth to a complex project that spans multiple generations of oral histories and dreams and stories of resilience. The book now comes with its own lesson plan by ethnic studies educator Thea Fojas de Borja, mini migration maps, an altar of dreams, Fil-Am history capsules, and pictures of beloved ancestors. Our illustrator, Albert Balbutin, has been amazing in taking on the multiplying illustration tasks! Despite the extra effort and hours we are expending, it is clear that the project asks us for more time so we will give it that. We are now anticipating a release date in December, with a potential preview in October. Thank you for your patience! It will be amazing and worth the wait!

Salamat Book

Like Our Bahandi, Our Wealth, The Salamat Book also evolved in ways we didn’t anticipate! What also started as a “simple” poem thanking our human and more-than-human elders and ancestors has grown into something that is more than poetry. We’re not sure what to call it but it now comes with an in-depth lesson plan, a note-taking chart, and a teacher key, from educator Tuyen Tran. Additionally, it has inspired another poem by community elder Leny Strobel. We know we said it about Our Bahandi and we will echo it here: This will be amazing and worth the wait!

A peek while we wait…

LOOKING AHEAD

Rooted in Practice Call for Submissions

We are once again collaborating with Pinay Powerhouse collective to publish the second Rooted in Practice, Pinays in Law anthology in the spring of 2025. If you identify as a past, present, or future Pinay attorney, JD holder, law school student, or legal professional, please consider sending us your stories. More info and a video at Rooted in Practice — Pinay Powerhouse.

Events in the July and August

This July 27, we will be tabling at The Forgetters: An Evening with Greg Sarris event in Sonoma County. We will be sharing our table space with the Center for Babaylan Studies, an organization that closely aligns with and inspires our press’ kapwa values. This is going to be a night of wonderful storytelling and, hopefully, relationship building. If you’re in the area, please come by, say hi to us, and listen to Greg Sarris’ stories.

In August, we will be bringing Mungan and Lola to an intimate symposium with the Center for Babaylan Studies in Michigan. CfBS is one of our long-time collaborators and we are glad for their support and guidance. Mungan and Lola is inspired by the epic that tells about the Bukidnon babaylan (indigenous healer), Mungan, who suffered from an illness, was cured by the gods, and eventually became a healer. It is fitting that CfBS, with its focus on the babaylan tradition, would be one of the first group to welcome the book into the world. More info about CfBS here.

Virtual Meet and Greet

Plans are underway for a virtual meeting between the artists and creatives—illustrator, graphic designer, writer, editors, reviewers, educators, etc.—and the public to talk about the process, challenges, and joys of creating Mungan and Lola. As soon as we get the date down, we will send the invitation.

WAYS TO SUPPORT US

Publishing for, about, and with our community is challenging for many reasons but we love it! Please continue to show us your support in however way you can.

· You can read more (lots more!) about our specific publishing journey for the Mungan and Lola book by going to our Mungan blog.

· You can find out about our press’ general goings on at our website.

· You can (pre)order any of our books through our website. As of today, we do not sell through Amazon.

· You can sign up for our newsletter here.

· You can follow us on Instagram @SawagaRiverPress.

· You can send us an email to info@sawagariverpress.com if you have ideas about collaborating with us for a book project.

· You can support our crowdfunding campaign, currently slated to be held in October through November 2024, to help us with the printing and other production expenses for our three current works-in-progress (i.e., Our Bahandi, Our Wealth; The Salamat Book; and Parti Taym!).

THANK YOU!

We appreciate you and hope you continue to support us.

Summer 2024 with Sawaga River Press

Spring 2024 with Sawaga River Press