Laut Stories

by Sigrid Marianne Gayangos

Introducing "Laut: Stories" - a debut collection of thirteen speculative fiction tales by local Filipina and Palanca Award-winning author, Sigrid Marianne Gayangos. This book takes readers on a journey through the interstices of the city and seaside, where land lovers and sea dwellers coexist and interact in ways that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination.

"The rational and the impossible thrive together in the tales that Sigrid Gayangos weaves in Laut: Stories, a book that is as important for its setting and philosophy as for its exquisite writing. Laut buoys us into the interstices of city and seaside to witness the interactions and migrations of land lovers and sea dwellers alike. With masterful restraint that few storytellers her age possess, Gayangos documents encounters with magic that can neither be calculated nor tamed, with forces that exist gloriously in the physicality of water, but also always just outside the limits of human knowledge. There is no greater gift to the reader than these startling glimpses into a life-giving world we too often take for granted."
—Anna Felicia Sanchez, Pics or It Didn’t Happen and Actual Stories

"Sigrid Marianne Gayangos’s debut collection of speculative fiction showcases the interplay of imagination and political consciousness—and in that fertile space, Laut: Stories offers both delight and provocation, delivered with a confident hand. With this book, Gayangos steps up to lead the charge for the next generation of writers."
—Dean Francis Alfar, Salamanca

"This first collection of thirteen stories by Sigrid Gayangos brings us back to the primal waters of the imagination. In the Malayo-Polynesian language of seafarers, laut is the name for the ocean on whose currents they rode to reach thousands of islands scattered in the Southern Pacific Ocean, some of them so small, and from time to time disappearing with the flow of the tides. In the thrall of stories inhabited by humans and more-than-humans, we echo Sigrid Gayangos’s praise of the seas and the oceans “for rolling relentlessly around the world, for reminding us of our smallness, for showing us how things are connected, for instilling a deep sense of wonder, for the air we breathe, for food, for the singing of the waves, for literally and figuratively everything. May we be better stewards of this water planet.”
To read each of these stories with care is to joyfully say yes!
—Marjorie Evasco, Skin of Water

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories

170 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Sigrid Marianne Gayangos is a Filipino writer from Zamboanga City. She is the author of "Laut: Stories," a National Book Award finalist, and "Lola Maria’s Candles," a forthcoming bilingual children's book. In 2021, she won the NCCA’s Writers Prize for Fiction, enabling her to complete a collection of short stories in Chavacano, which she is currently translating into English. Gayangos teaches at the University of the Philippines Mindanao and focuses on themes of queer love, identity, and cultural heritage in her works​

Reviews

[Led · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the quite confines of her room, [she] knew that the swelling in her heart was what mathematicians called infinity. p.144

LAUT or the deep, high seas is a collection of fantastical anecdotes set in Zamboanga Peninsula and Dumaguete. Among its menagerie of themes the prominent ones are mysticism, human relationships, social responsibility, and ecology. Can't deny that I was smitten by its attractive cover that gives semblance to the context of stories it holds.

As most compilations go, some entries are of stronger structure, message, and recall than the others. For their bizarreness alone 'Theirs Hard-headed...' and 'Ikoy' easily impressed mental imagery. I was hoping there was more to the chain of characters in the final chapter 'Residents of an Island...' What I would say are outstanding pieces because of the writing were the ecological despair-themed ‘The Price of Air’ and ‘Galansiyang.’ The illustrations preceding each chapter serving as hint of what story to come could be of better print quality.

I'm pleased to have read more about this part of the waters of my home archipelago.

Rating: 3.5/5

[Neil Franz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best short story collections I have read. I like the diversity and 'uniqueness' of each story. Captivating. Later stories are also nostalgic to me since it feels like I'm reading the YA dystopian stories I have read before.

[toni gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could spend forever dissecting each story from this collection with how beautiful it is, but having many of the narratives set in Zamboanga and parts of the Visayas warm my Mindanaoan heart as a suffice testament to SMG's impact and representation. Indeed, as per the foreword, her stories underscore the "trans" part in transgressive. After all, it is always in literature where disturbance is demanded.

[Kalay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably one of the best short story collection I've read this year.

[bebe go]

Galansiyang 🫶

[Maria Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sana po next work nya at Tagalog x Chavacano ang language register, para mas dama ang tono ng mga Tausug na nag-adjust sa Ateneo during college years nila (ala-Perry, HAHAHA!)

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

my non-stop live commentary while reading this Oh Lord parang ang dami kong dinadaldal habang binabasa 'to like Let's Discuss aksh...!

the people (me) long to convalesce by the sea agh these were my favorites: Like Ripples in Infinite Seas, Galansiyang, Residents of an Island off the Coast of Old Samboangan

will return to the library tomorrow i'm excited for whoever this book finds next hehehe