The publisher of Filipino literature launches its new imprint, e.g., dedicated to short-form writing, with the release of its first title, e.g. Anthology 1.
Over the past few years, Exploding Galaxies has been publishing the “lost classics” of Philippine literature, having started with fiction or novels like Wilfrido D. Nolledo’s But for the Lovers, Linda Ty-Casper’s The Three-Cornered Sun, and Erwin E. Castillo’s The Firewalkers. The publisher continues to expand its reach, having recently launched two beautiful volumes of non-fiction from food writers Doreen G. Fernandez and Edilberto N. Alegre, Sarap: Essays on Philippine Food and Palayok: Philippine Food Through Time, On Site, In the Pot. This March 2026, it’s proudly launching a new imprint, e.g., which is dedicated to short-form writing.
What began as a bi-monthly journal has now become an imprint that will release an annual anthology of collected writing and standalone books. The launch is marked by the release of the the imprint’s first title, e.g. Anthology 1, which features contributions from contemporary Philippine writers and artists.
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About e.g. Anthology 1
Featured contributors in e.g. Anthology 1 include writers Glenn Diaz, Vicente L. Rafael, Lisandro E. Claudio, Angelo R. Lacuesta, Alvin Yapan, Christian Benitez, Charlie S. Veric; and artists Lesley-Anne Cao, Kawayan de Guia, Gary-Ross Pastrana, The Weather Bureau, Czar Kristoff J.P., and Kitty Taniguchi.
The anthology will be providing a home to “fresh, focused pieces of writing—experiments, explorations, and false starts—no less elegant, nor less refreshing, for being so curious,” as Exploding Galaxies describes in a press statement.
The inaugural issue will be a collection of works from e.g.’s maiden year, including the intimate writings of the late and eminent postcolonial historian Vicente L. Rafael, whose academic works have shaped Philippine and Southeast Asian historiography. e.g. Anthology 1 was also created in conversation with Exploding Galaxies’ book catalog, aiming to widen the publisher’s endeavor of discussing the country’s lost classics and reinvesting contemporary meaning into the Philippines’ long literary tradition. In doing so, it hopes to renew connections between past and contemporary, classic and experimental, lost and deleted.
“Together, Exploding Galaxies and e.g. constellate pinpricked pendants within what is a much larger, richer world of letters—of endless other for examples extending outward from any single work,” the publisher writes in a statement.
“The short-form imprint e.g. cuts a home from the dustbin—our canvas of abandoned explorations. We publish pieces that were too focused, miscellaneous, extraneous, or experimental to incorporate into anything larger—to “make the cut”—or to find a home on their own, but that remain fascinating in their own right,” adds Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz, who serves as the anthology’s editor.
A Peek At The Works In e.g. Anthology 1
Curious? Below are a few prose and poetry excerpts from the line-up of writers featured in e.g. Anthology 1.
“It is an architecture of distracted development: dense, decaying, and deracinated. And when the rains come, mini-lakes quickly form as entire sections are submerged. Watery nature quickly rebukes the violence of concrete and capital with its own swift justice.”
– Vicente L. Rafael
“Sleep was beginning to finally visit the insomniacs and drunkards of Barangay Bagong Pag-Asa when a commotion louder, more ominous than the usual domestic squabble erupted from the second floor of Mang Calixto’s bakery. Footfalls on crunchy GI sheets. Objects falling on hardwood. A female screech. And when it was over, out came, from the side door below, the dazed, emaciated figure of the retired general. Dazed but also smiling, the remnant no doubt of a megalomania that ran unchallenged for too long. Escorted by soldiers in high battle gear, the decorated butcher of peasants and activists looked jolted from sleep, hair long and gray, a shadow of his former self. ”
– Glenn Diaz
“. . . [H]ands covering bleeding ears, backs that couldn’t flee from whippings, sexes shat on, necks strangled by ropes, noses long numbed by the smell of corpses rotting . . .”
– Alvin Yapan, translated by Christian J. Benitez
What paradise was, I had glimpses of. / The distant islands. Clouds on shining water. / Seagrasses. Starfish in the clearing, leaving / a trail of movement. Then I came, unannounced. / Trudging on soft flats at low tide, I heard / the crustaceans, their tiny shells breaking / underneath my heavy sandals.
– Charlie Samuya Veric
You can get your copy of “e.g. Anthology 1” starting March 25, 2026 through the Exploding Galaxies website, and in bookstores around the Philippines from mid-April onwards.
