Ani Cooney
Artist’s Quote
To write as a queer Asian man is to come out over and over again. To write as a queer Filipino man is to come out bold in scene, sentence, and word. Yet this process of coming out — of writing ferociously and delicately — I execute without shame and fear.
Luminary’s Quote
… you have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all. That’s the only advice you can give anybody. – James Baldwin
Baldwin, James. James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations. New York: Melville House, 2014.
Bio
A VONA / Voices alum, Ani Cooney is the recipient of a 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize and a Manuel G. Flores Prize from the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA). His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and can be found in Epiphany, LikeWise Fiction, and Best Debut Short Stories: The PEN America Dau Prize.