12/09/2026
Mae Coyiuto’s books neatly stacked at the entrance of the Quezon City Public Library conference room felt like a retrospective of sorts.
The Year We Became Invincible was her debut YA novel, Chloe and the Kaishao Boys made her into the first PH-based author published by Penguin Random House, and Goodbye and Everything After is the newest in her oeuvre—but it may also be her most mature and profound work yet.
Looking back at her books fondly, Ms. Mae said she tells aspiring writers to “[t]ry not to be too critical with past work because I feel like in each book, [I] appreciate [that] it kind of symbolized for me a time in my life when this is how I could write.”
And while she is stressed out about writing good Filipino and Chinese-Filipino representation in her books, she is thrilled to write familiar stories in her own cultural lens.
Ms. Mae (Mae Coyiuto) shared all this and more in a silent reading, meet & greet, and book signing with SBC Manila last September 5.
