Field of Play and Other Fictions

by Francis Paolo Quina

THINK OF THE WORLD, how time makes it so predictable--order to disorder, life to trash--now imagine how it would look if time stopped moving forward toward disorder. Imagine instead all energy remaining as it is in this moment.

The last inch of earth from the hills has yet to rest and settle over the remains of the small city.

Underneath the earth, horrified faces lie frozen in that final, panic-filled moment of death. There is nothing calm and soothing about these faces of the dead and dying.

Now imagine time, that great, unnamed villain, the unimpeachable tyrant of all narrative, pulling back, moving towards order instead of chaos.

From puddles in the ground, water separates from dirt and forms into droplets that launch upward, like a million bullets being fired by the earth to heaven.

Genres: Short Stories

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2018

About the author

Francis Paolo Quina earned his undergraduate and graduate Creative Writing degrees from the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he is now an assistant professor at Department of English and Comparative Literature of the College of Arts and Letters. He teaches classes in composition, literature, popular culture, the science fiction genre, and creative writing. His research interests include transmedia storytelling, popular culture, and narratology. He is the Deputy Director of the UP Institute of Creative Writing.His fiction and poetry have been published in The Philippines Free Press, Ampersand, Kritika Kultura, The Journal of English and Comparative Literature, and most recently, Tomas (2017). His fiction has been anthologized in the Philippine PEN Center anniversary anthology, A Different Voice: Fiction by Young Filipino Writers (2007) edited by Vince Groyon, Trash: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology(Malaysia, 2016), this is how you walk on the moon (Singapore, 2016), and The Best Asian Short Stories 2017 (Singapore, 2017). Field of Play and Other Fictions is his first book.

Reviews

[Yan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a surprisingly good read for me. Most of the short stories revolve around relationships, infidelity, and the quiet complexities of human connection, and I found many of them hit close to home. What I appreciated most was how the stories didn’t feel like formal storytelling; instead, they unfolded like honest conversations or internal monologues, making them feel intimate and raw. I also really valued the author's reflections on writing. As someone who aspires to be a writer myself, those insights felt both encouraging and grounding, like quiet reminders of why we write in the first place.

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been trying to get back into reading and supporting Filipino authors, and I’m happy I stumbled upon this anthology.

The short stories in collection center on the complexities of relationships. Despite the similarities, each story explors different literary formats, which I found interesting. I also felt sense of longing and melancholia, and a connection to the characters.

Out of all them, Departures and Seven Pages from A Filipino Novel (*this was the most different amongst all the stories, and actually felt like an investigative article about other authors) are my favorites.

Looking forward to reading more from this author!

[miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

i appreciate that this collection of stories tackle so many facets of the things we face in relationships. i also like how parts of the book were a sort of commentary or a play on the craft of writing and reading. however, it felt quite flat from the story titles to the plot structure. it could be the intention, but it didn't work for me.

my favorite story has to be: a picture taken one sunday, many years ago