Chicks rule!

THEY’RE relatively cheap, they’re easy to read, and they are luring modern Pinays into bookstores. Not everyone may like chick lit, but in the last few years, enough young, urban Filipinas have been picking up the tales about well, themselves, really, and ensuring healthy profits for the books’ publishers. In a country where local titles usually have a print run of 1,000 copies, chick-lit books are enjoying print runs of as much as 10,000 copies each, with some titles even going through a second print run.

But is chick lit literature? Katrina Stuart Santiago, who teaches literature at the Ateneo de Manila University, argues that at least those published by the subgenre’s market leader, Summit Books, and especially those written by writer/editor Tara FT Sering, “blur that line that divides ‘real literature’ from popular literature.”

The current popularity of chick-lit books, adds Santiago, proves that Filipinos can be readers. She says that in the hands of Sering, “chick literature” has not only become proof of a Filipino readership; it is in fact testament to how the literary establishment can face up to the challenge of getting an audience that is here, in this country, and actually be read by those they speak of.”

We hope that readers will be entertained by the piece — which is part of i Report‘s current series on Literature and Literacy — and also be prompted to check out local chick-lit titles in bookstores and libraries.

Read on pcij.org.