Contact: 

As I have limited time, I prefer not to host comments on this blog. But if you are interested in making contact, do feel free to send your thoughts, questions or comments to rochita.loenen.ruiz@gmail.com. I will do my best to reply. 

About Rochita:

Born and raised in the Philippines, Rochita currently resides in The Netherlands where she works as a creative artist with a focus on writing, storytelling and activism. She is the founder of the online Munabol Writing Sessions for BIPOC youngsters and has led workshops for the Other Futures Festival and for Fiber (a multi-disciplinary art project).

Her workshop practice is influenced by Adrienne Maree Brown, by Edouard Glissant’s work on relationality, by Rolando Vazquez and various thinkers on decoloniality and decolonial practice. Her interest lies in stimulating and encouraging makers, thinkers and dreamers to explore beyond what is the comfort zone and she is constantly at work developing different approaches and different ways of encouraging prospective writers.

Her recent work includes explorations in collaborative and collective story creation and story making through diverse tools and media.

Writing:

Rochita’s first publication was a short story, inspired by life in the mountains. It was published in Philippine Panorama. Her poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in PATMOS (an international publication of the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture), Isip-Isak (the local version of PATMOS), and the Second Hay(na)ku anthology. She has also co-authored an inspirational book for Overseas Filipino Workers entitled Hope Away from Home.

Rochita attended the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in Seattle in 2009. She was the recipient of the Octavia Butler Scholarship in 2009.

Rochita’s speculative work has appeared in a variety of online and print publications. In 2021, she released the chapbooks Colonial Dreaming and A Small Assemblage under Alternate Munabol Productions.

Her essays and reviews have been published in a variety of venues. She penned the column called Movements which is still available online at Strange Horizons.

More recently, she has began writing in Dutch. Her first short story in Dutch is slated for publication in an upcoming Dutch anthology.

Workshops attended: 

Clarion West Writer’s Workshop, Seattle (2009)

Milford Writer’s Workshop, Wales  (2018)

Janis Ian’s Creative Masterclass, Stella Adler school of Acting, New York (2015)

( Press release from the Carl Brandon Society)

From the Beloved Country:

“From the Beloved Country” signifies two things. Rochita is a daughter of the Beloved Country (The Philippines) and she resides in the Beloved Country ( the country of the speculative).

*Photo credits: Banaue Rice Terraces by Joash Pio Ruiz