'Merlinda Bobis is a writer whose work transcends. This choice of adjective risks sounding rapturous or breathless, but it speaks to the visionary and startling qualities of the work of this Filipino-Australian author, as well as her work’s range. An award-winning transnational, cross-disciplinary writer and scholar, Bobis is the author of prose fiction and poetry, academic discourse, and dramatic works for radio and stage. She writes in Bikol, Filipino and English, demonstrating what the critic Dolores Herrero has described as a ‘defiant willingness’ to engage with her ‘rich bicultural heritage’.'(Introduction)