Cinelle Barnes

Instructor & Writer
Profile Photo

Cinelle is a formerly undocumented memoirist, essayist & educator from the Philippines, and is the author of MONSOON MANSION: A MEMOIR and MALAYA: ESSAYS ON FREEDOM, and the editor of the New York Times New & Noteworthy book A MEASURE OF BELONGING: 21 WRITERS OF COLOR ON THE NEW AMERICAN SOUTH. She has an MFA from Converse College. Her writing has appeared or been featured in the NYT, Longreads, Electric Literature, Buzzfeed, Literary Hub, Hyphen & CNN Philippines, among others. Her work is anthologized in A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY. She’s a contributing editor, instructor & writer at Catapult.

Classes

view 12 past classes  »

Stories

Cover Photo: An image of a pen crossing out an image of twitter
Why I Haven’t Invited Twitter Into my Writing Practice (a Thread)

As part of our Social Media Week series, Cinelle Barnes writes about being a writer and not being on Twitter.

Apr 25, 2022
Cover Photo: A statue of a tug of war
When Do You Stop Writing?

Let’s give answering this difficult question a shot.

Oct 21, 2021
Cover Photo: An image of a person holding a seedling in their hands
How Do I Write Amid Erasure?

Speaking of hijacking, we can subvert the oppressor’s literature.

Aug 05, 2021
Cover Photo: An image of the writer holding a pencil that is as large as her body as she sketches faces that interconnect
Cover Photo: An image of the author with her daughter on her back on a beach
Resistance Can Be Playful, Too

In the face of overlapping and unprecedented crises, an immigrant mom protects her family through play.

Dec 17, 2020
Cover Photo: Illustration by Kim Salt for Catapult
What I Found When I Searched for My Long-Lost Sister

This was not the information I was looking for. This was not the truth I wanted.

Nov 20, 2019
Cover Photo: Art by Isabelle Laureta for Catapult
Carefree White Girls, Careful Brown Girls

“Nobody will stop a young blond girl, that’s the truth,” you said. This was when I grew angry with you, when I wanted to scrap our week-old friendship.

Sep 25, 2018
Cover Photo: Photo courtesy of author
How A War in the Middle East Changed My Family in the Philippines Forever

Papa left the summer I turned eight. The emotional toll of a wife who blamed him was too much to carry along with the burden of repatriating thousands of Filipino citizens.

Aug 07, 2018