ASTHER Bascuna Creo of Maidstone writes about the migrant experience in the anthology Climb the Mountain, which is the latest publication from the Society of Women Writers Victoria.
Ms Creo also co-edited the book of prose and poetry.
“I’ve written one short story and four poems,” she said.
“The short story is fiction but is close to my own experience as a migrant who comes to Australia trying to enter the same field she worked in overseas.”
Ms Creo worked as a corporate writer, in addition to public relations, marketing and communications, writing and editing magazines.
“The woman in the story has a neighbour who, like her, leads a parallel life of isolation.
“She is an elderly woman who is unable to speak.”
The two women feel they are both marginalised by society but, when the old woman dies, her husband tells the migrant his wife deliberately distanced herself from family and friends.
“That led to a change of perspective for the Asian migrant, and the story ends with her receiving her newly-published novel in the mail,” Ms Creo said.
The delivery symbolises how a change of perspective can make a difference in a person’s life.
Ms Creo, 32, arrived in Australia from the Philippines two years ago with her family.
Her first job here was as a media relations officer for Braybrook Maidstone Neighbourhood Association.
Ms Creo has an obvious passion for writing and is busily planning to set up a business in publishing, writing and editing.
“I am also planning to set up a community writers’ group here in the West, and am actually applying for funding for it,” she said.
“I hope for it to be a fellowship of western residents who are interested in writing.”
Copies of Climb the Mountain will soon be available at the Maribyrnong Library.
