Fellow-writers and friends of Alice Sun-Cua gathered at the Solidaridad Bookstore last June 29 for the launching of her new collection of travel essays, “Autumn in Madrid and Other Travel Tales.”

While she teaches at De La Salle University, the author, who’s a gynecologist, is an alumna of the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. So the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS), and the UST Publishing House, which published the book, partnered with the Philippine Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists (PEN) in the launching.

Writers and colleagues of Sun-Cua attended the event, such as Marjorie Evasco, Jun Cruz Reyes, Ed Maranan, Rony Diaz, Charlson Ong, Nicolas Pichay, Mario and Alma Miclat, Dada Fres-Fenix, Mabek Kawsek, Santiago Villafania, and Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo and Ralph Semino Galan, director and deputy director respectively of the CCWLS.

In her introduction to the book, poet Evasco wrote: “With her as travel-companion, I have faith that as we go through our own reading journey of ‘Autumn in Madrid,’ we would never lose our way. In fact, every pathway here would find us, if we have the pilgrim’s heart, and restore us to our braver selves.”