Memoir Series: Cinelle Barnes

Lyrical, emotionally driven, and told through stories both lived and overheard, MALAYA is an intensely personal, yet universal, exploration of race, class, and identity that redefines what it means to be a woman—and an American—in a divided country.

“I give us a new name: Malaya, which in my language means to be free. She hands me a pen and paper. I take it. I begin.” – from MALAYA

With this new name, Cinelle Barnes returns to readers with a potent collection of stories filled with hope for a better future, perseverance in the face of discrimination, and a mandate to never give up the fight. In MALAYA: Essays On Freedom, Cinelle invites you into her world, opening up a window into her past as an undocumented young woman determined to build a future amidst the hustle and bustle of New York City. And she shares with you her present – a young mother navigating the stubborn landscape of the American South. The overture to her debut memoir Monsoon Mansion, where she emerged triumphant from her harrowing childhood in the Philippines, Cinelle Barnes’s story of survival is far from over – her journey to self-discovery is just beginning.

Cinelle Barnes is a memoirist, essayist, and educator from Manila, Philippines. She is the author of Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir, which was listed as a Best Nonfiction Book of 2018 by Bustle and nominated for the 2018 Reading Women Nonfiction Award. She is also the editor of a forthcoming anthology of essays about the American South by writers of color. Having earned an MFA degree in creative nonfiction from Converse College, Cinelle has written for Buzzfeed, Catapult, Literary Hub, Hyphen, Panorama: A Journal of Intelligent Travel, and South 85, among others. Her work has received fellowships and grants from VONA, Kundiman, the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Charleston Arts Festival, and the Lowcountry Quarterly Arts Grant. Barnes was the 2018–19 writer-in-residence at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, South Carolina, where she and her family live. For more information, visit www.cinellebarnes.com.