Once I tell someone that I am from the Philippines, they ask me— so how’s New York working out for you? And I answer with something safe and nice: It’s good! I’m doing well so far, thanks for asking. In my head, what I think is: Oh, it’s like Metro Manila with four seasons; an oversized Cubao. The cost of living is too damn high and the quality of life too damn filthy. Thanks for asking.

This is not my writing desk. My writing desk is nowhere near safe and nice. It is nowhere at all. When people ask me to say what I mean and to not be so modest, they have no idea what they are looking for but which I would still be so willing to expose.

Zeny May Dy Recidoro received her training in art history, criticism, and research from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. In 2011 and 2014, she received the Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Literary Prize for Poetry. In 2018, the Asian Cultural Council awarded her with a graduate scholarship to attend the MFA Art Writing program at the School of Visual Arts, New York City. She is interested in cinema and photography, experimental media, urban studies, psychogeography, spirituality and magic, Asian art histories, horror and folklore.