Writing
Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio is an author whose work centres around the struggles, triumphs, and dreams of the Filipino-Canadian community. Through the Humber School for Writers, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Toronto Public Library Writer in Residence program, her mentors have included Wayson Choy, Karen Connelly, Kim Echlin, Richard Scarsbrook, and Joshua Whitehead. Her debut novel, Reuniting with Strangers, was one of CBC’s Best Books of 2023 and was longlisted for Canada Reads 2024.
She is a founding member of the Filipino-Canadian Writers and Journalists Network and Salaysay, a collective of Filipino-Canadian authors and poets. Jennilee writes literary fiction and Young Adult fiction. She facilitates engaging writing workshops for Grades 7-12, and writes reviews of Filipino YA and middle-grade literature for educators.
Through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, Jennilee often writes stories inspired by newcomers in Toronto’s Little Manila, where she has been a settlement worker and a tour guide for Myseum of Toronto, Heritage Toronto, and CBC Metro Morning.
Accomplishments
Her creative writing has been published in Geist, LooseLeaf Literary Magazine, Akdang Dayo, and TAYO Literary Magazine. Over 40 of her newspaper articles have been published in The Philippine Reporter, Rabble, New Canadian Media and Wanderful, and her academic writing has been published by Fernwood Publishing.
Her short story, Belonging at Bathurst and Wilson, won an emerging author’s award from the Ontario Book Publishers Organization in 2017.
In 2018, she edited Eric Tigley’s Hoy! A Philippine Islands Activity Book — the first Canadian children’s activity book featuring Philippine culture and history.
In October 2019, Jennilee completed the Emerging Writers Intensive First Chapter Novel program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and was a recipient of the Masters Endowment.
She was shortlisted for Room Magazine’s 2019 Short Forms Contest.
In 2020, her story, “The Kayaking Lesson,” was published in Changing the Face of Canadian Literature: A Diverse Canadian Anthology edited by Dane Swan (Guernica Editions).
In 2021, she was a finalist for the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award— an award to recognize Asian writers across the Canadian diaspora.
In 2022, she was longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize for her story, “Her Life’s Work.”
And in 2023, her debut novel, Reuniting with Strangers, was published by Douglas & McIntyre. It was named one of CBC’s Best Books of 2023 and longlisted for Canada Reads 2024.
In 2024, a chapter from Reuniting with Strangers will be published in Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing, edited by Ted Alcuitas, CE Gatchalian, and Patria Rivera (Cormorant Books).
Reuniting with Strangers is currently available in Canada, and will be available in the US in April 2024.
Jennilee is represented by Hilary McMahon and Bridgette Kam at Westwood Creative Artists.
““With her fiction, Jennilee brings us in close. Using the light touch of sparse, clear prose, she creates a sumptuous intimacy in public spaces with characters who have lived and lived and now have to live some more. There is lightness and sparkle in Jennilee’s work. She takes the grind of living and feeling and does something with it that’s tender and sad and joyous all at once.”
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“The author is a rare and powerful talent with a knack for channeling different voices.”
At the Banff Centre for Creativity with fellow First Chapter novelists mentored by Joshua Whitehead.
With mentor Wayson Choy at the Humber School for Writers.
At Another Story Bookshop with members of Salaysay, a collective of Filipino-Canadian writers. From L-R: Maria Patricia Abuel, Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio, Justine Abigail Yu, Nastasha Alli, ML Gamboa, Yves Lamson, and Eric Tigley. Photo by Jovie Galit.
Publications
Geist, Winter 2023
Cormorant Books - Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing
Reading an excerpt of my story, “Seven Steps to Reuniting with Your Teenage Daughter.”
Geist, Winter 2022
Guernica Editions -
Changing the Face of Canadian Literature: A Diverse Canadian Anthology
Excerpt:
After a lifetime on the shores of the St. Clair River in Corunna, Ontario, I’d moved to Toronto two months before university began so that I could slowly adjust to city life. But most nights, I found myself gravitating towards the harbourfront, eating vinegar-doused fries from a white food truck and watching the water, just like I would back home.
Cindy was the only one person I knew in the city. Both of our parents had left the Philippines for Corunna so that our fathers could don helmets, steel-toed boots and ill-fitting coveralls to work as journeymen at Imperial Oil, the refinery that was so close to our homes that the smokestacks spewed smelly clouds over the swingsets in our backyards. Cindy was four years older than me, and she had scooped up so many awards in high school that when she chose to study marketing in Toronto, we knew that she would never live in Corunna again.
Ontario Book Publishers Organization
Excerpt:
It was my second day in Canadian high school, and I could barely function. Everything was upside-down— and not only because my body was still on Manila-time.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that reuniting with Mama in Canada was a huge mistake. She left me behind when I was only three years old. For the past fourteen years, she had worked as a caregiver in Hong Kong and Toronto, taking care of other people’s kids, but never me. We barely knew each other.
My feet were crushed in my new school shoes because she didn’t even know what my size was. And when I complained that the shoes felt cheap, she snapped, “Just be grateful, Delmar. Caregiving is never easy money!”
TAYO Literary Magazine
LooseLeaf Literary Magazine
Excerpt:
“Hey Aps, what do they sell here, exactly?”
“Everything you ever wanted and everything you’d never want!” Apollo replied, weaving his way through the kitchenware section. “At Honest Ed’s, there’s a section for everything: shoes, toys, underwear, rakes, lightbulbs, buttons, bread, Spam— you get the idea. There’s even a pharmacist and a dentist office buried somewhere in here!”
Delmar looked around for offices, but all he saw was an overwhelming amount of clutter that he couldn’t afford. He couldn’t believe that he used to shop at the best malls in the Philippines, but now, even Honest Ed’s was beyond his reach.
Reading at the Andres Bonifacio Festival at Toronto City Hall. Photo by JC Bonifacio.
Reading at the Philippine Consulate of Toronto for Salaysay, a collective of Filipino writers. Photo by Nastasha Alli.
Presenting “6 Writing Tips from Wayson Choy” for Living Hyphen at Queen Books. Photo by Justine Abigail Yu.