MANILA, Philippines – From bold debuts to long-awaited returns, Manila International Book Fair (MIBF) 2025 is booked and brimming with new Filipino “stories in every form.”
This year’s MIBF takes over not just one but two floors of the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, filled with freshly released books, special activities, and author appearances from September 10 to 14, from 10 am to 8 pm.
Before you walk in, here’s a quick list of eight standout reads that prove Filipino literature is as fearless, gut-wrenching, and thought-provoking as ever.
Thirty Virgins by Eros Atalia
Eros Atalia’s Thirty Virgins embarks on Leslie’s journey in interviewing 30 women willing to sell their virginity for P1 million.
According to a BusinessMirror article, the idea behind the book was conceived after Atalia watched a YouTube video about a woman auctioning off her virginity. The book bagged the 2024 Carlos Palanca Grand Prize under the Nobela category, astounding Atalia with a fifth time win that welcomed him into the Hall of Fame.
Tatlong Gabi, Tatlong Araw (2013) and Ang Ikatlong Anti-Kristo (2017) are among his novels that have previously garnered Palanca grand prizes.
Thirty Virgins is published under Avenida Books.
Team Building by Siege Malvar
Siege Malvar’s novella Team Building takes corporate buzzwords like “synergy” and “thinking outside the box” to their most absurd extreme.
A company sends its employees to an island for what should be a team-building — only that they must kill each other for a promotion. Dark, sharp, and bloody, this novella asks just how far people will go for success.
Team Building is published under Avenida Books.
Daddy by Chuckberry Pascual
Chuckberry Pascual’s novella, Daddy, follows Ryan, a middle-aged queer man whose chance encounter with a stranger in an MRT station restroom sets off a whirlwind journey of self-reflection.
Through this story, Pascual unpacks what it means to grow older as a queer person in a society that often pushes unmarried individuals into the role of default caretaker. Yet Daddy insists that Ryan is not defined by expectation alone — he is someone with his own desires and dreams, and the right to pursue them.
The novella also layers in a rich recollection of hookup culture from the late ‘90s to the present, foregrounding queer urban life’s intimacies and struggles.
Pascual has previously authored novels like Mars, May Zombie! (2022), Ang Nawawalang Barangay (2024), and Mars, Maraming Zombie! (2025), among others.
Daddy is published under Avenida Books.
Insect Hag and Other Stories by Yvette Tan
Yvette Tan’s titular story in Insect Hag and Other Stories describes Shari’s dilemma as she seeks help from a mambabarang or an insect hag to heal the boils on her boyfriend’s skin.
The folk horror collection unveils four short stories and one novella binding Filipino mythical culture and modern-day sociopolitical issues. The novella Antingera, for instance, follows a woman who incites revenge for her partner, who died during the drug war.
Tan’s previous pieces Kulog and Sidhi, from her first fiction story collection Waking the Dead, triumphed in the 2003 Carlos Palanca Awards, and her short story Horror Vacui won third place in the 2024 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards.
Insect Hag and Other Stories is published under Anvil Publishing Inc.
KWENTOYS by Budjette Tan and Brandie Tan
Budjette Tan’s KWENTOYS, brought to life with vibrant art by Brandie Tan, transforms the stories of ordinary toys into gateways of imagination.
Best known for his horror-crime comics series TRESE, which he co-created with Kajo Baldisimo, Tan offers a refreshing collection of eight YA short stories that spin the tales of special items with supernatural abilities and futuristic powers.
Both nostalgic and inventive, the collection rediscovers the wonders of childhood play, where even the smallest objects can spark bigger stories.
KWENTOYS is published under Avenida Books.
Falling Apart by Design by Allan Navarra
Allan Navarra’s nonfiction piece, Falling Apart by Design, reads like a diary cracked open at the edges — capturing the inner battles of a Filipino urban worker caught between pushing forward and giving up.
Mixing sharp social commentary and intimate confessions, Navarra crafts a fragmented yet striking portrait of survival in the city. Here, he sheds light on a faceless man in the crowd, one who rages for dignity under his “overburdened, taxpaying primate breath.”
Navarra has authored poetry books like Sacada: A Catalog of Commodities for a Period of Glorious Tumult (2011) and Love Team: Love Letters from a Broken World (2022).
Falling Apart by Design is published under Avenida Books.
Agaw-Anino 2: Tagapagtala ng Tumatakas na Gunita by Erik Pingol
Erik Guzman Pingol’s Agaw-Anino 2: Tagapagtala ng Tumatakas na Gunita continues the haunting journey of Arturo, a man who may have left his youth behind but remains tethered to the shadows of his past.
The first book, Agaw-Anino, follows a group of thrill-seeking young boys who encounters supernatural events in San Pablo. The story won the 2024 Carlos Palanca Grand Prize under the Nobela category.
Now a professional this time around, Arturo still wrestles with memories that refuse to fade, bound by stories that resist being told in the light. Agaw-Anino 2 brews memory, mystery, and the supernatural in a narrative that simmers between doubt and revelation.
Agaw-Anino 2 is published under Avenida Books.
A View from the Ground by Atom Araullo
Atom Araullo’s first book, A View from the Ground, takes readers beyond screens and headlines, and into the daily realities of people often at the footnotes of national conversation.
Drawn from his years of field reporting across the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the collection captures essays on displacement, poverty, and courage — written through the eyes of a journalist and the heart of a storyteller. The book also highlights his documentary photographs.
Critics have praised it as both haunting and hopeful, with National Artist Ricky Lee calling Araullo’s truth-telling “impossible to look away” from.
This collection comes after Araullo’s previous nonfiction piece, Letter from Tawi-tawi — a work also woven with his photos and words that clinched the 2022 Carlos Palanca Grand Prize under the Essay Category.
A View from the Ground is published under the University of the Philippines Press.
Whether you’re after chills, laughs, or quiet reflection, these eight titles prove there’s no single way to tell a Filipino story.
One thing is certain: this year’s MIBF lineup offers something to spark conversation long after you’ve left the aisles of SMX. – Jaella Magno/Rappler.com
Jaella Magno is a Rappler volunteer and 3rd year AB Literature major in Creative Writing student from De La Salle University.
