The Halo-Halo Review is pleased to interview authors in the aftermath of their books’ releases. This issue’s featured author is Yolanda ‘Yoli’ Catalla:
What is your most recent book?
I’m Not Weird, I’m Marginal. Its book description:
A silence broken after five decades.
For nearly fifty years, the disappearance of Tina remained a private ache within the Catalla family—a grief held in the quiet shadows of their home. In I’m Not Weird, I’m Marginal, author Yolanda F. Catalla finally brings that mourning into the light.
More than just a memoir, this book is a courageous act of chronicling the intense ripples of loss. Through raw reflection and evocative prose, Yoli honors her sister’s memory, giving a long-overdue voice to a family’s enduring love and their journey through the margins of grief.
Who published it and when was it released?
The book is self-published and was released October 2025.
What has been the response/what has surprised you about the response?
Overall, readers were positive; the question “Is the story true?” was the surprise.
Tell us something not obvious or known about the book.
How and where we, children, learned about activism is not obvious in the book. It’s not obvious how we, 12 children, learned about activism. Our parents lived activism, and we had front row seats. The learning happened during Dad’s job assignment in a rural part of Mindanao in1963. We all went as a family. He helped start a community cooperative while our stay-at-home Mom taught workers’ wives baking, embroidery, and the basics of sewing machine use.
What are you working right now?
I’m writing the sequel of I’m Not Weird, I’m Marginal. I’m also revising several poems for a collection.
*****
Yolanda ‘Yoli’ Catalla has been a domestic helper, a nanny, and chambermaid; an administrative professional, a teacher and most recently, a crafts and books seller. She dropped out of a development communications degree program at the College of Agriculture, University of the Philippines in Los Banos, Laguna, during the turbulent 1970s. A recipient of a scholarship in 1987, Yoli returned to school at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France then at the Sorbonne in Paris. She was employed by the International Food Policy Research Institute, 1991-1999 and The World Bank, 2000-2012, both located in Washington DC.
Yoli’s poetry appeared in Returning a Borrowed Tongue (Coffee House Press, 1996) and Babaylan: An Anthology of Filipina & Filipina American Writings (Aunt Lute Books, 2000). She is the author of “Where Peace Begins,” a play that came out of the September 11 New York City tragedy. The play premiered at the International Monetary Fund Auditorium and toured the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area from November 2001 through November 2002. “In Memoriam,” a short fiction, appeared in Philippines Graphic, November 2008. The following year, her poem “Abstract Painting” won the Ventura Valdez English Poetry Award. Another poem, “Disappeared,” was published in Danas, mga pag-aakda ng babae ngayon (Gantala Press, 2017) and “I Wish,” was also published in Translating Feminisms (Tilted Axis Press, 2020).
A grantee of a Letterpress Printing & Fine Press Publishing Seminar for Emerging Writers (New York City), December 2011, Yoli was twice selected for the Jenny McKean Moore Community memoir writing workshop at the George Washington University, 2001 and 2004. She was a participant in Prof. Rica Bolipata-Santos’ Memoir Writing Workshop, April 6-May 11, 2013, at the Ateneo de Manila University. Yoli sews eco-bags, paints watercolors, does acrylic fluid art; she’s based in Laguna. Book link: https://payhip.com/b/XkhtT
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