Three books by Filipino writers make 2026 a landmark year for Filipino non-fiction in Aotearoa

The Big Idea reports that three books authored by Filipinos have been published in Aotearoa this year: the anthology Mga Tinig Sa Mahabang Puting Ulap, Joseph Trinidad's essay collection Lucky Creatures, and Among Kinabuhi sa Aotearoa: Filipino Lives in Aotearoa.

Three books authored by Filipinos have been published in Aotearoa this year, the arts site The Big Idea reported on 27 October 2026. It called this remarkable because, at last count in 2024, only 6.7% of published books in New Zealand were by Asian authors, about half the rate of their representation in the population.

An anthology of 22 migrant stories

Mga Tinig Sa Mahabang Puting Ulap (Voices From The Long White Cloud) features 22 works of creative non-fiction solicited through an open call, written in Filipino and English. Its editors are Ernesto Villaluz Carandang II, Donna Rhyse Dacuno, Selena Aarona Teresa S Davis, Jade-Ceres Violet Dolor Munoz, Lilia Sevillano and Janet Hope Tauro-Batuigas. The team applied for funding with Creative NZ but was among the hundreds of rejected applications in 2025, so some of the editors pooled their own money to print the book. Sales at launches in Nelson and Auckland in June and July made a reprint possible, and libraries and schools can order it through Wheelers Books Online.

Co-editor Jade-Ceres Violet Dolor Munoz, an awarded poet and recipient of the Filipino-Kiwi Hero Award for Civic Engagement, told The Big Idea:

"Filipinos are visible in New Zealand—in healthcare, hospitality, education, corporate spaces, everywhere. But being visible doesn't necessarily mean that people know our stories."

Lucky Creatures

Joseph Trinidad's essay collection Lucky Creatures was published by Te Herenga Waka University Press and contains his personal stories of growing up in two countries, from memories of his grandmother's chicken farm in the Philippines to his family's move to Central Hawke's Bay to become dairy farmers, and his coming of age as a queer child of migrants in Aotearoa. It was awarded the inaugural Sarabande Prize in the Essay and was launched at the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival and Unity Books Wellington in May. Trinidad told The Big Idea:

"I learned from a young age that behind every migration is fracture. Someone is always working a job they only sort of like while their family is living somewhere far away."

Among Kinabuhi sa Aotearoa

Edited by Marc Conaco and Vivien Beduya and published in June by Auckland Council Libraries, Among Kinabuhi sa Aotearoa shares the stories of 14 Filipinos, a group of artists, academics and activists. The project was greenlit by Auckland Libraries, and the back of the book features a directory of Filipino groups and initiatives that readers can connect with. "We are not just your nurses, bus drivers, and other service workers. We are also community builders and change makers who are actively creating equitable and just futures," Conaco said.

The Big Idea article was written by Selena Davis, who discloses that she is a co-editor of Mga Tinig Sa Mahabang Puting Ulap.

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