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Jim Pascual Agustin

Goodreads Author

Born

in Marikina, Philippines

Website

http://www.matangmanok.wordpress.com

Twitter

matangmanok

Genre

Poetry, Fiction

Influences

Bienvenido Lumbera, John Berger, Raymond Carver, Pete Lacaba, Mangyan ...more

Member Since

October 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/jim_pascual_agustin

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Jim Pascual Agustin was born in the Philippines.
Winner of the 2022 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize winner for his manuscript WAKING UP TO THE PATTERN LEFT BY A SNAIL OVERNIGHT, published in March/April 2023.
His previous book is BLOODRED DRAGONFLIES (Deep South). BLUR OF A DOG is forthcoming from his Philippine publisher, San Anselmo Press, which released his two other collections - HOW TO MAKE A SALAGUBANG HELICOPTER & other poems and CROCODILES IN BELFAST & other poems.
His early years were spent in a communal house where he struggled to remember all the names of his numerous cousins. His family was forced out of their land to make way for the construction of a highway named after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
He owes his love for literat Jim Pascual Agustin was born in the Philippines.
Winner of the 2022 Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize winner for his manuscript WAKING UP TO THE PATTERN LEFT BY A SNAIL OVERNIGHT, published in March/April 2023.
His previous book is BLOODRED DRAGONFLIES (Deep South). BLUR OF A DOG is forthcoming from his Philippine publisher, San Anselmo Press, which released his two other collections - HOW TO MAKE A SALAGUBANG HELICOPTER & other poems and CROCODILES IN BELFAST & other poems.
His early years were spent in a communal house where he struggled to remember all the names of his numerous cousins. His family was forced out of their land to make way for the construction of a highway named after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
He owes his love for literature to the late Irish-American priest, Fr. James O'Brien, SJ. Jim was a Fellow of the University of the Philippines Writers Workshop and the Iligan University Writers Workshop. In October 1994, he moved to Cape Town, South Africa.
He has a number of poetry books published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. In 2011, Baha-bahagdang Karupukan (Filipino collection) and Alien to Any Skin (English collection) were simultaneously released.
Blogs for these two books are: www.karupukan.wordpress.com and www.alientoanyskin.wordpress.com
In 2013, Kalmot ng Pusa sa Tagiliran and Sound Before Water were published. 2015 saw the release A Thousand Eyes. His first collection of short stories in Filipino, Sanga sa Basang Lupa, was released in 2016 and has been selected by renowned Filipino novelist Edgar Calabia Samar among the notable books of recent memory.
WINGS OF SMOKE, his eighth poetry book, was released in 2017 by UK publisher The Onslaught Press.

In his adopted country of South Africa he has won second prize in the 2013 New Coin DALRO Poetry Prize and third prize at the 2014 and 2015 Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award.
Please contact the author through his blog, www.matangmanok.wordpress.com if you are interested in any of his work. ...more

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Jim Pascual Agustin’s books

Average rating: 4.04 · 301 ratings · 55 reviews · 20 distinct works

	Sanga sa Basang Lupa at iba pang kuwento 4.21 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2016	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to Make a Salagubang Helicopter & other poems 4.21 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2018 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Alien to Any Skin 4.53 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sound Before Water 4.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Kalmot ng Pusa sa Tagiliran 3.92 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2013	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Baha-Bahagdang Karupukan really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2011	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Crocodiles in Belfast & Other Poems 4.56 avg rating — 9 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Waking Up to the Pattern Left by a Snail Overnight 4.25 avg rating — 8 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wings of Smoke it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Salimbayan by Jim Pascual Agustin (Goodreads Author), Argee Guevarra, Neal Imperial 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1994	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Jim Pascual Agustin's Blog

Getting Out of Bed Before Dawn

Funny what one remembers when you wake up before dawn…. this poem from my book SOUND BEFORE WATER (University of Sto.Tomas Publishing House, Manila 2013; Minimal Press, Cape Town 2025) —

along with a lot of random things like Norman’s newspapers stuffed in his jacket to keep himself warm in winter in Cape Town – that was around 1995 or so… when I was working in a secondhand music shop in a rundown

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Jim’s Recent Updates

Jim Agustin answered Brett Hetherington's question: Blur of A Dog is such a great title. It made me think of that Francis Bacon painting. Do you know the one I mean, Jim? Hi Brett, Thank you for visiting my page. I had to check online for the possible painting you have in mind - is it this https://uploads4.wikiart.org/images/f... Glad you like the title. Maybe you can give the book a try one day? Take care. Jim See Full Answer
Oct 30, 2025 04:48AM · 1 like · like Brett Hetherington Thanks for your reply. That Bacon is unlike anything else I've seen from him in style. I cannot attach any link or files here but I can send you the o ...more Oct 31, 2025 12:54AM · flag
Jim Agustin is now following Harold Fiesta's reviews
Oct 14, 2025 11:50AM · like
Jim Agustin made a comment on The nonsense of media focus that distracts from the genocide in Palestine " Hi... it's from my matangmanok blog, linked, I think. ...more "
Oct 14, 2025 11:49AM · see blog post
Jim Agustin rated a book really liked it Tsetlo by Mongane Wally Serote	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 29, 2024 10:08AM · like

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Jim’s Quotes

“If every event which occurred could be given a name, there would be no need for stories.”
― John Berger, Once in Europa

tags: labels, stories, storytelling

52 likes

“My heart born naked
was swaddled in lullabies.
Later alone it wore
poems for clothes.
Like a shirt
I carried on my back
the poetry I had read.

So I lived for half a century
until wordlessly we met.

From my shirt on the back of the chair
I learn tonight
how many years
of learning by heart
I waited for you.”
― John Berger, And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos

tags: love, poetry

117 likes

“What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince, 'is that somewhere it hides a well...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

tags: inspirational

4169 likes

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Jim’s Groups

¡ POETRY ! — 22610 members — last activity Nov 19, 2025 04:25PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! — 330 members — last activity 17 hours, 22 min ago
Every two weeks we have a different contest in both short stories and poetry and a poll to see who wins after each contest. No prizes except bragging ...more

The Filipino Group — 8563 members — last activity Nov 30, 2025 07:18PM
Goodreads - The Filipino Group (GR-TFG) We are Filipinos who love to read anything we get our hands on and who love to meet and discuss these things ...more

Pinoy Reads Pinoy Books — 2133 members — last activity Apr 04, 2025 05:33AM
We are Filipinos who patronize Pinoy books, our very own. When we say "Pinoy books" we mean all published works written by Philippine and foreign nati ...more

SA reads — 171 members — last activity Aug 17, 2022 07:35AM
Welcome to SA Reads We started SA reads last year to read and discuss more books by SA authors. We were excited and surprise to meet both avid read ...more

SA Book & Challenge Lovers — 1917 members — last activity 1 hour, 50 min ago
Welcome to SA Book & Challenge Lovers. This book club is for anyone, not just South Africans, that love reading and doing reading challenges. Everyone ...more

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Jim’s Friend Comments

Comments (showing 1-3) post a comment »

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message 3: by Jim (last edited Jul 31, 2013 11:28AM)

Jul 31, 2013 11:29AM

K.D. wrote: "Thank you for joining Pinoy Reads Pinoy Books (PRPB-GR), Jim. I hope everything is okay with you."

KD, I never saw this. Sori po. I also would like to ask you a favor. If you have time. Salamat.

Jim

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message 2: by K.D.

Sep 24, 2012 10:43PM