Delivered at the Philippine International Literary Festival 2019, hosted by the National Book Development Board, at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City.

Slide 1: Thank you for choosing to attend this session today. My name is Mina V. Esguerra and I'm an author and publisher of romance novels. The theme of this year's Philippine International Literary Festival has centered on memory, and this topic I'm presenting has a complicated relationship with not only literature, but in being remembered. I have been writing and publishing romance in English for 10 years, and have been in over a dozen panels, representing the books I write, my career, and my genre. Most of the time, I am up here explaining what is the romance genre? Why do I write it? Do you know how popular it is? Why is it worth reading? It's the year 2019, and I have to do this again, but I always try to mention how we've progressed. Because we have, wonderfully, and if you heard me speak on this even just five years ago you'll see that we've come so far now. Still, maybe I should also accept that I will always need to deliver a Romance 101. Maybe memory involves people taking the role of repeating the thing over and over, until enough people know it. I hope that in the spirit of the theme of this festival, of memory, those here remember the value of examining how we write about relationships. Let's not ask anymore if romance as a genre is valid; it is. Let's ask it to be better. Let's ask all our genres to be better.

Slide 2: I have written and published 24 books, mainly contemporary romances. I am currently writing my 25th.

Slide 3: I have a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's degree in development communication. Before publishing my first book, I spent 10 years working in editorial and publishing, and by the time I founded the #romanceclass online community, my work had included 7 years of building, administering, and maintaining international online communities for policy practice and development. I introduce my session with this because based on the photos you'll see later it might look like what I do is all fun and games--and it is fun, there are games, but also a lot of work.

Slide 4: When I say I write romance novels, I go by the definition that romance must contain a main romance plot, and a happy ending for the characters in the relationship (emotional justice). This is the definition we got from the Romance Writers of America Association, from the world community of romance readers that calls itself "romancelandia," and this is what many publishers use as well. If the novel does not have a main romance plot or a happy ending for the main characters, it is a love story, a tragedy, general fiction, drama, fiction with romance elements...not romance.

While according to certain surveys as much as 85% of romance readers identify as women, it is not the same as women's fiction because romance can and should be inclusive of all. I have needed to explain that romance is not women's fiction when I'm asked about it by high school students, college students, MA students, to literature teachers, to publishing professionals—which should tell us that as far as misconceptions go, this one is systemic and manages to keep so many people involved in literature uninformed about important books, just because they happen to be romance genre. So if you don't mind I'll ask you how much you read romance. Raise your hand if you've read a romance book this year, as defined. Have you read more than one? How many regularly read romances that are not by American/Western/white authors?

I've read 50 books in 2019, so far, mostly romance or fiction with romance elements, most of them by non-white authors. And I know people who have read 100 by now. This is a billion dollar industry with a very active and enthusiastic readership. I don't mean to make anyone feel bad about their reading speed or genre choices, but I do like to know how much background info you might need or if you'll recognize any of the names that might be mentioned as I go on.

Slide 5: #romanceclass started as a free online class in 2013, that attracted 100 joiners, about 50 active participants, and at the end of 6 months, 14 completed manuscripts. 

Slide 6: 11 books were published from that first batch. 

Slide 7: Since then the community has gone on to help over 80 Filipino authors publish over 100 books. 

Slide 8, 9: We hold events every year, the last one in April 2019, so that readers can discover the books. 

Slide 10: Our books are read in many places, some unexpected. They're read beyond the locations of the authors — meaning not just our family and friends— and are now in ebook reading devices, bookstores, classrooms, and libraries.

Slide 11: Since 2016 we've refocused the classes and the community to help authors who wish to write romance in English with Filipino or Asian characters.

Slide 12: We're doing this despite reminders, year on year, that US publishing has become increasingly white, despite calls for more diversity. This annual survey by romance bookseller The Ripped Bodice revealed essentially who's trying to do something about it and who isn't—

Slide 13: but that's just one side because we see support in retailer orders, library orders, blogger coverage, booktube, bookstagram, media mentions, Twitter, Goodreads.

Slide 14: So, what we've learned so far from being present in all these conversations and participating with our own books? Our Kilig Is Valid. Often when I'm interviewed I'm asked why I write romance. Writing about romance and love and sex is not by itself strange, I don't know if you know that almost every romance author I've met was told NOT to write romance, early on, as a young writer.

Well-meaning mentors told me that to be taken seriously, I should write something else. For a few years, I did that. I told you about romanceclass and our 80 published authors? So many of them have the same story. But we ended up here, because our kilig is valid. Romance happens to be a genre where it is expected, and really, it's a requirement to explore what makes a relationship function. Under what circumstances can love begin? What challenges can it overcome? How does one learn to be in a relationship? Sometimes, sadly, and importantly:

Slide 15: What does love look like? What does pleasure look like? What does the feeling of being trusted and loved as you deserve look like? Books are mirrors and windows. It makes my skin crawl whenever someone who writes or loves reading says that romance is "typical boy meets girl"—which means my skin crawls weekly, and intensifies when Valentine's Day approaches.

We can believe the books we like, the books we make, can be both a mirror to someone, and a window to someone else. Romance as a genre in the world is releasing books that not "typical boy meets girl." What is "typical", even? There are books that feature characters who are just like us. Have we found our mirrors?

Slide 16: I'm assuming you have some interest in romance genre, if you are attending this literary festival and you chose this session. Can you think of at least 5 romance books that you feel are wonderful mirrors? If you struggle to fill a list, then we haven't done enough. We need to read more and encourage more to write.

Side 17: After six or so years and being in community with readers in the Philippines and other countries, we have an entire list of things we know we should do. I'm aware that the audience in this room will likely be readers, authors, and educators, so I've narrowed the list to what's could be relevant to those three groups. Short version: be critical and empower. And never empower jerks. Being critical means we can recognize that Our Kilig Is Valid and make it mean something more by looking at WHY we feel things. Why does this romance work, or not work? If it works, does it empower, or harm? Can a little book with a pink cover really empower or harm? It doesn't hurt to ask a few questions.

Slide 18: Like number 1, in the case of romances with male love interests: Is he a romance hero, or actually just a decent human being? Let's question how we elevate to romantic the actions that should be bare minimum decent. The bar is so low, especially now, and when men and even women tell me that our depiction of a romance hero is unrealistic because no man is that good I just want to tell them, as I'm telling you now, that THEY SHOULD BE THIS GOOD. A romance hero should not be merely the least abusive man among many abusive men. It is important to me to normalize demanding that men be better, rather than demanding that a romance author be more "realistic." If a book takes the side of empowering jerks, then definitely, question it. As a reader, how do we feel about this? As an author, why do I like writing this? As an educator, how do we evaluate and discuss the work?

Slide 19: Number 2: Is she truly in love with him, or did she have no other choice? In too many forms of Philippine media and literature, women are plot devices—they're hurt or killed to call a man to action. When a woman is the main character the most common dramatic device is to make her suffer and sacrifice her happiness for a man, a parent, a child, ignoring what is true in social development—which is that when you empower women, when you focus on their mental health and give them choices, you lift up entire communities. When the romance story documents a woman's suffering, and then requires them to sacrifice everything, we should ask who benefits from the sacrifice then. Who in the story does not suffer, because you made the woman/marginalized person suffer? Did you just empower a jerk? So in #romanceclass we require this: Give your main characters agency, and that includes the power to say they want this person. Consent is a requirement. Some authors I've met have found this difficult to even imagine but if you write in the group then this is what you have to do, because this is our stand. Clearly, this isn't the case in many books out there that we'll get to read, and of course people do go ahead and write what they want anyway. As readers, how do we feel about this? As an author, why do I like writing this? As an educator, how do we evaluate and discuss the work? In this section I've said "woman" by the way, but we also have similar requirements for queer characters, when authors in the community write them. Give them agency, show us what happens when they have choices.

Slide 20: Number 3: Is this realistic, or is it selectively realistic in ways that empower and enable the jerks of our society? Harmful jokes, harmful stereotypes, cruelty...yes sadly, these do exist in real life. But you know how it is with jokes—some people just aren't funny, but think they are. One can be dangerous all the same.

Philippine romance media—but really, so much romance media in the world—perpetuate harmful things because historically, those who didn't find it funny had no voice in the writing and publishing process.

We can and should listen to them. Romance readers have told us when our work has caused harm. Authors must take the time to consider this feedback and educate ourselves on what we've been responsible for perpetuating. Educators are in a unique position to discuss this with students who are learning how to be critical of media they consume. On this aspect we have learned so much more from young people than those we considered our mentors. If we are supposed to be doing this for readers, then we should listen to them.

Slide 21: On those three points alone, we already know we have a lot of work to do, and new voices are often the answer to this. If romance is what you want to write, but you've never felt completely represented in it, there are ways to be critical so that future books will be better, and empower those who are learning to write better stories. Our Kilig Is Valid, and we wouldn't have been able to do this if we gave up when people told us to. I'm even prouder of the work being done now, because of how readers have a voice in the process.

Slide 22: One of the best ways to get new readers to experience what I'm talking about is through live readings. Actors Gio Gahol and Rachel Coates were our very first live readers—and they still read from our books at events. We've learned that this is an important part of the process too—it's one thing to write your kilig, and read it, but hearing it, and seeing it? Here's a sample of what that's like.