A poet’s spontaneous stroll through a gallery in the Philippines has led to a history-making collaboration. Angela Narciso Torres, Poetry Grand Prize Winner of the 2013 Willow Books Literature Awards, will be releasing her prize-winning collection on September 30, Blood Orange. The richly detailed cover of the book is the result of a collaboration between Narciso Torres and acclaimed Filipino artist Hermes Alegre, who was unveiling a brand new painting, “Catalina,” at an exhibition of The Saturday Group of Artists at EDSA Shangri-la Plaza, Manila, Philippines. The next installment of his Aura series, Alegre’s painting immediately caught the eye of Narciso Torres, who happened to be visiting her ancestral home this past summer and heard about Alegre’s exhibition.  

“The minute I saw the painting, I knew,” Angela said. “I had been searching quite a while for the right image to capture the spirit of this collection. Now, I feel the pieces have fallen into place.”

Part memoir, part love letter to the Philippines of her youth, Blood Orange has received critical acclaim for its ability to be “at once vividly present in the moment and fully attuned to the under-dwelling currents of history.”

The Willow Books Literature Awards recognize literary excellence in prose and poetry by writers from culturally diverse backgrounds. The Grand Prize winners were selected from a field of ten finalists. The prose winner is Angie Chuang and the Editor’s Choice winner is Rich Villar.