CEBU-BORN Cecilia “Baby” Manguerra-Brainard is no stranger to the written word, having authored more than 20 books, i.e., short stories novels and essays in her literary life.

Married to American lawyer Lauren Brainard, she has made California her home all these years, but keeps warm ties with her hometown—Cebu!

If she’s not launching another book, she drops by to give seminars as she did recently for the Cebu Normal University (CNU) AB-BSEd English majors with background in creative writing. Aside from the 150 students, some faculty members from the Languages and Literature departments also attended.

The one-day seminar-workshop on “Narrative Voice” commenced with a Powerpoint presentation of “Journey of a Writer.”

What followed was an in-class exercise focusing on Left Brain-Right Brain theory about creativity with sharing. A most interesting portion was the actual writing, and concluded with students and teachers giving responses to the workshop.

After the very successful and lively “journey” with the word, Baby donated some of her books to the CNU Library, much to the appreciation of the faculty.

Brainard would also want to give thanks to Drs. Carmen Derasin and Reynaldo Caturza for being instrumental in organizing this event.

Of course this called for a celebration, during which Baby’s near and dear gathered for a sumptuous repast at Casino Español de Cebu. Let’s have more books and bouquets, Baby!