Stories + Essays
“The Typhoon is a Hurricane”
Joyland, (March, 2023).
Celit pushed the cart, pulling tins of sardines, Vienna sausage, and Spam from the shelves. She took the last carton of Saltine crackers and grabbed several liters of cola.
SELECTED SHORT FICTION
“The Esguerra Sisters,”
Hypertext, (July, 2023).
When my twin and I turn sixty-five, the women in the city begin coming out of their houses. One at a time, we hear their stories. We hear them speaking on the radio. We hear them on the news.
“Holy Thursday,”
Riksha-Asian American Arts in Action, (May, 2017).
Soledad massaged Lola E’s forearm, ran her thumb through the thick of the old lady’s yellow skin. The wrinkles were fine.
“The Typhoon is a Hurricane”
The Rumpus, (February, 2018).
Celit pushed the cart, pulling tins of sardines, Vienna sausage, and Spam from the shelves. She took the last carton of Saltine crackers and grabbed several liters of cola.
“America Still Beautiful,”
The Miami Rail, (August, 2017).
Carmen leaned back in her recliner, feet twitching. Her toes were dry and itchy. Her knees ached. Outside the sun had set early, even for November. She turned the television up.
SELECTED essays
“ONE QUESTION: M. Evelina Galang,”
an essay. (Hypertext, July 14, 2023.)
The real-life stories of Filipina “Comfort Women” of WWII are embedded in my imagination. I worked and researched their experiences for my nonfiction book Lolas’ House: Filipino Women Living with War as an aside—I thought. But in the end, I spent 20 years going back and forth, building relationships with 16 women in the book, and more who had not made it into those pages.
“The Flight of Lola Catalina Lorenzo: In the Philippines, ‘comfort women’ Demand Justice,” an excerpt from LOLAS’ HOUSE, (Salon.com, September 8, 2017).
Catalina Lorenzo was born December 24, 1914 in Tondo City, Metro Manila. She was abducted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942, Davao City, Mindanao.
“Miami Stories: Filipino Writer Forges Bond with Viejas,” Miami Herald, October 29, 2015. (pdf, document)
I moved to Miami after returning from my Fulbright Scholar Program in 2002. The same muggy air, car horns, heat that I left in the Philippines greeted me as I walked out the doors of Miami International Airport.
“What the Conversation of Alex Tizon’s Atlantic Essay is Missing,”
an essay. (Slate.com, May 21, 2017.)
A day before its cover story went live, the Atlantic tweeted, “Coming tomorrow: Lola’s story by Alex Tizon.”
In Context (or Why there is no Glossary of Terms) (pdf, document)
When I was little, growing up in Peoria, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and for a time, the province of Saskatchewan in Canada, my parents spoke to each other in a language different than the one they spoke to my brothers and me.