Cariaga, Catalina 1958-

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CARIAGA, Catalina 1958-

PERSONAL:

Born 1958, in Los Angeles, CA. Education: Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles, B.A.; San Francisco State University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Oakland, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, 'A 'A Arts, 2955 Dole St., Honolulu, HI 96816.

CAREER:

New College of California, San Francisco, adjunct faculty member of poetics program; writer.

WRITINGS:

Cultural Evidence (poetry), Subpress Collective (San Francisco, CA)/'A 'A Arts (Honolulu, HI), 1999.

Contributor of poetry to Nick Carbo, editor, Returning a Borrowed Tongue: Poems by Filipino and Filipino American Authors; and to periodicals, including Chain, New American Writing, and Zyzzyva.

SIDELIGHTS:

Catalina Cariaga's poetry collection Cultural Evidence was the first release by the Sub-press Collective of San Francisco, California, a group of writers who donate one percent of their yearly income toward the publication of books. In Cultural Evidence Cariaga offers the perspective of a Filipino American as she and her relatives assimilate into California communities. Through poems about the Philippines and in her depiction of her immediate family Cariaga casts light on the immigrant experience as "new" Americans come to understand how other Americans perceive them. A Publishers Weekly critic called the book a "vital first collection," adding that it is "a deep, occasionally tentative consideration of issues of nation and self-of belonging and exile."