Six Saturdays of Beyblade and Other Essays

Quinabuangan and the glorious marching band.

Cembo, Makati and the burning Ship.

Baclaran, Manila at night, for the lost and homeless.

In these ten personal essays, a father confesses in gripping narratives his coming of age without a father, of working at an early age, of finding love in hopeless places, of losing a son to leukemia, and of accepting the language of pain. In Six Saturdays of Beyblade and Other Essays, bestselling author Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin brings us back to memories of being a tennis ball picker in a lavish country club, of achieving his dreams as the smallest member of a countryside marching band, and of drinking Michael Jordan and Olajuwon as breakfast juice inside a walk-in freezer with fellow service crew members. He also introduces us to his exes and lost first loves. He lends us a list of his fist fights, those he knocked down during drinking sessions or brawls, his antics in the field of love, and the truth behind escaping the convent. Sometimes he is a son, sometimes a father, and sometimes a friend who vividly shares without beating around the bush. Written with a cinematic eye, Jarin bares it all, fair and square, no more or less. Most of all, no entrance fee.

About the Authors

Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin

Ferdinand Pisigan Jarin is one of the Philippine's foremost author and creative non-fictionist. He is the author of Six Saturdays of Beyblade and other Essays (originally Anim na Sabado ng Beyblade at Iba Pang Sanaysay), which won a National Book Award for Best Book of Nonfiction in Filipino in 2014 from the Manila Critics Circle and National Book Development Board and was a finalist for Madrigal-Gonzales First Best Book Award administered by the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing (UP ICW). The book, since its first edition up to the present, is a consistent bestseller for creative nonfiction in Filipino. Its main story, the Six Saturdays of Beyblade is one of the mandatory readings for the Philippines' secondary students studying Philippine and Asian Literature. Jarin is a three-time Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awardee for Literature, the Philippines' most prestigious literary award-giving body. Jarin is teaching Filipino Language and Creative Writing at the Division of Humanities of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas.

John Toledo

John Toledo is an emerging author, translator, and creative nonfictionist from the Philippines. He translated to English the Filipino original of the Six Saturdays of Beyblade and it was first published in the winter issue of the Asymptote Journal (2021). He currently writes criticism and essays about Philippine literature and pop culture in both Filipino and English. A graduate of the Filipino creative writing program at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Toledo teaches Filipino language, Philippine and World Literature and Creative Writing in various universities in the Philippines. Six Saturdays of Beyblade is his first book of translation.