Carla Montemayor

The genre of creative non-fiction has never been more playful with form, and so this issue of Hinterland celebrates the art of experimentation. Headlining the issue we have an epistolary essay from Jenn Ashworth (Ghosted, Notes Made While Falling) written to her younger self’s favourite author. We also sit down to chat with Doireann Ní Ghríofa about her hybrid work of non-fiction and auto-fiction, A Ghost in the Throat. Also featuring writing by Chris Beckett, Chris Cusack, Pune Dracker, Jacqueline Ellis, Jordan Harrison-Twist, Alice Kent, Laura Knott, Aaron Landsman, Carla Montemayor and Jon Paul Roberts.

Meet the matriarchs of Filipino myth – defiant goddesses, powerful witches, terrifying shapeshifters – and their real-life counterparts, as Carla Montemayor journeys to discover her own ancestry and the stories of her people. When Carla Montemayor discovers that her great-great grandmother was a binukot – a girl sequestered from her family and community, trained to memorise and sing the myths of her people – this sets her on her own epic journey to uncover her ancestry. Why was she raised on European fairytales and Greek myths when the stories of her own people are so rich? And why did no one in her family speak of their illustrious binukot foremother anymore? Travelling to the Philippines to trace the lives of her female relatives, Carla discovers that, officially, her people have no history. Like many indigenous groups, their stories have been erased by colonists. It becomes her work to reconstruct and reimagine them. Weaving together the tales of her family members, who survived war, oppression, violence, displacement and more, with the myths of her people, Carla finds similarities: women with courage, resourcefulness and ambition, who fight and love with equal ferocity. Islands of Forgotten Daughters celebrates these women and tells their tales, offering a fresh perspective on Filipino history and culture. It is a rallying cry for the power of storytelling: to resist erasure, preserve identity and resonate for generations to come.