Rochita C. Ruiz currently lives and works in The Netherlands as a creative artist, musician, and workshop facilitator. A graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, Rochita was the recipient of the 2009 Octavia Butler Scholarship, and the first Filipino writer to attend Clarion West. She also attended the Milford Writer’s Workshop as a recipient of the Milford Writers BAME scholarship. 

Rochita’s fiction and non-fiction work have been published in a variety of online and print publications and she is currently in the process of creating a collection of her short fiction and non-fiction work. 

Rochita published “Song of the Body Cartographer” in Philippine Genre Stories in 2012, which was inspired by the painting “Creation of the Birds” by Remedios Varo.  Rochita returns in 2025 with “Hymn to Life” which she originally wrote in Dutch as Hymne van de Overlevers  for the science fiction anthology De Komeet edited by Martijn Lindeboom and Vamba Sherif, and published by Uitgeverij De Geus in February, 2023.

Welcome back to Philippine Genre Stories, Rochita! We’ve missed reading your stories! 

Thank you so much for your kind words. I’ve always had a soft spot for PGS, so it’s a joy for me to be able to offer you Hymn to Life. 

We understand that you wrote this story in Dutch first. What was it like writing in Dutch?

I want to say that it was easy, but honestly it was not.  I was going through a rather challenging period when I was writing this story, so I wasn’t really sure if I could write it properly in Dutch. Still, I didn’t want to say no. I wanted to try and see what I could do and I also wanted to find out if I had it in me to write in a third language. 

The funny thing about language is how we think we can write in a language because we can speak it well enough. In the process of writing Hymne, I discovered the limits of my Dutch. I discovered the same things that I bump up against when writing in English–there are turns of phrases, colloquial usages, things that are second nature to people who are born native speakers which someone who acquires the language needs to learn. I also confess to cheating at points where I couldn’t immediately find the Dutch words I needed for something I was thinking about and so I would just jot it down in English and think about how to write it in Dutch later. 

I also want to acknowledge the help of my good friend, Marielle Verdijk. Without her help and without her careful and caring editing, Hymne would not have read as well and as smoothly in Dutch as it now does. 

And what was it like translating it into English?

I think it was easier to translate it from Dutch into English mainly because I thought I wouldn’t do a word for word translation, but instead write the same story but in English and try to see if I could bring out the same feeling and the same notes as in the Dutch version. I did have to cross reference to make sure I wasn’t deviating from the Dutch too much. I feel like the English version is more fluid because I’ve written a lot more and a lot longer in English, whereas in Dutch it was very hard for me to find an equivalent for some turns of phrases that I use in the English version. 

How long has it been since you last wrote a short story? 

The last specfic story that I wrote was Dragons of Yuta which appears in New Suns 2 edited by Nisi Shawl. Other than that, it has been quite a while since I wrote something short, mainly because I have been working on two stories that have grown beyond short story classification. 

Oh my, we are excited to read those!

What made you answer the call for the PGS submission this time? 

PGS will always be special to me, mainly because I know it’s published in The Philippines and also because a part of me is always writing with The Philippines and Filipino readers on my mind. I think I mainly started trying to get published abroad because someone told me Filipino writers won’t write good enough for native English speakers. But the thrill of being published by a Filipino publisher is something else. I think I can describe it as a coming home. 

And thank you for coming home this way. 

How did you start exploring the genre anyways? Were there specific books and authors that got you started?

As a child, I found myself quite fascinated by pulp comics like Aliwan (we were forbidden to read them because they contained forbidden material).  I would go off to the sari-sari store where you paid 5 cents to read one story and read as much of it as I could in the short time I had. I was particularly fascinated by Jim Fernandez’s Zuma. Now that I think about it, I think you can see Zuma’s influence in one of the first science fiction stories I wrote which was included in one of Dean and Nikki Alfar’s Philippine Speculative Fiction anthologies (I think it was Borealis). 

Unfortunately, I don’t remember the title or the author of the first science fiction novel that I ever read. It was a thin book (probably novella sized) and it told the story of a robot who was separated from his boy owner and the journey the robot undertook in order to get back to their boy owner. That book opened my eyes to another kind of story. I regret not remembering the title of that book. In my defense, the book vanished from the bookshelves of the clinic library where I read it.  Maybe one reason I write science fiction is because somewhere along the way I also want to write something that makes such a deep impression on another reader. 

Later on, I read C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, but when we were still in grade school someone gave us the Madeleine L’Engle books and I fell in love. Of course, they were children’s books, but for me, they fascinated me in the same way as Alice in Wonderland. The possibility of another dimension or another world, the idea of how time might work differently in another universe–other kinds of journeys. That caught my imagination. 

In high school, I became a member of the library club just so I could borrow more than one book at a time from the Star Trek novels. At that time though, they weren’t classified as speculative fiction or science fiction, they were simply fiction books. It wasn’t until I was in college that I found out there was a fantasy genre and there was a science fiction genre. 

What about Filipino-authored works, which ones have sat with you and why?

I don’t think there’s any Filipino student who hasn’t studied or read Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo by Jose Rizal. I still think these are two of the most powerful novels written by a Filipino and they remind us of the struggle and the feeling of living under the rule of a colonizer. 

In my early college years, I read a lot of Nick Joaquin and N.V.M. Gonzales. I think I was in a “I want to write serious literature” phase. And I felt I wanted to read these books which were written by National Artists. 

I remember reading through the collection of N.V.M. Gonzales’s short stories and emerging from each one feeling like I want to write now. I think he has two collections of short stories. I have both of those back home. 

F. Sionil Jose’s The God Stealer and other stories also made a strong impression on me. At that time, he hadn’t yet published Viajero or Ermita. But I remember being excited when I saw them in the bookstore and taking them home with me. 

Oh…I should mention Zuma because it remains the first Filipino work that made a deep impression on me. 

It was only much later and after a lot of effort that I got to read Filipina writers. At that time, the bookshelves were dominated by men. I hope that it’s something that’s been corrected since I was a student in Manila. 

Definitely that’s been corrected. 

Which among the published stories in Philippine Genre Stories have you found the most interesting so far (and why)?

This is a really tough question as PGS has published quite a lot of good work. I’d have to go back through the archives. I shall do my due diligence and catch up with reading and reviewing soon. But I want to express how I love seeing how many young writers are coming up and the role PGS plays in this is so important.  

I love when I see work that’s unafraid to play and mix languages. I also love when I’m surprised–when the story isn’t neat or tidy or predictable. 

And what specifically inspired you to write HYMN TO LIFE?

I think there was a big conversation going on in The Netherlands at that time around the subject of reparations where people were saying “I’m sorry for what our country did to your country”. And it just was maddening because saying sorry is only a starting point, but what about reparations? What about taking concrete steps and not just saying the words?  

I thought about how a lot of times, the burden of understanding and forgiving is placed on the shoulders of those who have been harmed. 

At the same time, the conversation around refugees and asylum seekers was already flaring up. How the actions of a few have an influence on policies that affect an entire group as well as the attitudes of entire communities towards a particular grouping, so this was all on my mind during the writing of this story. 

How do we make amends? How do we build bridges? How can we talk about forgiveness in a way that makes it clear–the one harmed has no obligation to forgive or do anything for the one who has caused harm. 

I actually wanted to do so many things with this story that someone said that it is bursting at the seams and it’s somehow amazing that it is still a short story. 

For me, science fiction is the perfect place for me to think through gnarly and tough questions. In some ways I’m still not satisfied because there are no easy solutions but I have to learn to live with that too and perhaps it means that I will write a little bit more around it. 

I should mention here that around the same time that I wrote Hymn to Life, I also wrote a story titled Dragons of Yuta which is in New Suns 2. The themes sort of speak to one another, so it’s probably indicative of where I was in my head at that point in time. 

So which came easy and hard in writing this story? 

I think the hardest part was trying to keep it within the word count. I actually set myself up for a challenge when I decided that I needed a full-fledged universe and that I wanted to tell a story that wasn’t about us versus them but more about seeing things from different sides. I’m not particularly fond of creating villains but prefer to think in terms of possibilities. Characters can change even when we think they can’t. Or at least, I want to believe that.  

I didn’t want this story to be  preaching–like shaking your finger at the reader and saying: oh, see…this is how you’re supposed to do things and I know better than you. I wanted to invite the reader to see the characters with their complexities and their struggles and to sit with that for a while. So that’s something I need to be mindful about no matter what writing I do. 

With regards to what was easiest, we were given a prompt by the editor of the anthology. They wanted us to take The Comet by W.E.B. Du Bois as a point of inspiration. Because of that, it was fairly easy to create an opening scene. What followed was a bit more challenging. 

I do have to say that once I settled on a tree-like species as my main characters, the story unfolded in ways that surprised me. 

Is there a next project that you’re already working on? 

Before my diagnosis and in between my earlier treatments, I’d been working on what I thought was a novel set in the world of The Body Cartographer, but maybe it’s a novella. Somehow being diagnosed and going through the process of surgery and treatment and recovery has made me understand parts that I felt dissatisfied with. I had to stop during my last round with chemo, as it took all my energy just to get from one round to the next. 

So, I would like to finish that story and I also would like to finish what I think is a novel-length work that got stranded at 70k.  

Other than that, I’m working together with a team to create a tabletop rpg for a museum over here. But that’s not a single-authored work. It’s work done in a team of writers so that’s an entirely different process. 

You think we might be able to read a book of collected stories from you soon? 

I struggled with impostor syndrome for a long time, so I didn’t think my work was good enough or that people would be interested. But I realised that I have a responsibility to the work. So it’s possible that it will happen soon. I’m in the process of making an inventory and collecting pieces into one document so I have something to offer a prospective publisher. 

Yay! 

As a writer, what tips can you share with the new and aspiring storytellers out there?

Tell your story however you need to tell it. You can use any form and any language, anything that helps you to get your story out in the world. Don’t worry about form. Don’t worry that it won’t fit any category. Don’t worry about those external things like who will publish you. Your story will find its audience, will find the readers who need it and that’s more important than all the awards in the world. 

Read. Read widely and read a lot and if possible read in different languages. Don’t just stick to one genre or what people call serious literature. Read quantum physics, read philosophy, read about habitats, read about biodiversity, read history, read as much as you can. But also, if you want to write science fiction, read good science fiction. Read the best of the genre that you want to write in and then ask why you think they are the best. 

Ask questions. Be curious and open to new learnings. Asking questions and new learnings will lead you to unexpected places. 

Find at least one person who is your cheerleader and who supports you unequivocally. I wouldn’t be writing still if not for my sister who was my constant cheerleader and supporter. 

Be true to yourself and to your voice. Kahit na anong genre ang sinusulat mong kwento, kung totoo ka sa sarili mo, you will keep on writing. 

Is there anything else that you’d like your current and future readers to know about you?

I am on bluesky as @rcloenenruiz and I have a blog that I update sporadically at rcloenenruiz.com. If there is something you think I can help you with, let me know. I am always thinking of the next generation. 

Dios mabalos po again, Rochita, and it’s been such a blessing to have you back in 2025!