Author Archives: filinthegap

About filinthegap

Lani T. Montreal is an educator, writer, performer, and community activist. Her writings have been published and produced in Canada, the U.S., the Philippines and in cyberspace. Among her plays are: Panther in the Sky, Gift of Tongue, Looking for Darna, Alien Citizen, Grandmother and I, and her most-toured comedy drama about gender and immigration, titled Sister OutLaw. She is the recipient of the 2015 3Arts Djerassi Residency Fellowship for Playwriting, 2008 3Arts Ragdale Residency Fellowship, the 2001 Samuel Ostrowsky Award for her memoir “Summer Rain,” and was finalist for the 1995 JVO Philippine Award for Excellence in Journalism for her environmental expose “Poison in the River.” Lani holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Roosevelt University. She teaches writing at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago and writes a blog called “Fil-in-the-gap”. (filinthegap.com.) She lives (and loves) in Albany Park, Chicago with her multi-species, multi-cultural family.

Paradigm Shift (Days 4 & 5)

Posted on March 6, 2021 by filinthegap

Spent most of the day attending training for a federal grant that my school received from the Office of Violence Against Women. Paradigm shift: I have not heard this term used so much in one training conference! But it is … Continue reading →

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Bringing the Outdoors Inside – (Day 3 of My Coronavirus Journal)

Posted on March 3, 2021 by filinthegap

I know I casually talked about feeding the farm in my last post, but we didn’t always have these many pets. We had Ringo and Gidget when we moved to our new home in 2019. Ringo was our elderly schnoodle, … Continue reading →

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Rinse and Repeat- (Day 2 of My Coronavirus Journal)

Posted on March 3, 2021 by filinthegap

This is the first day of my birth month. To be honest, I’m not as excited to have another birthday. Not anymore after I turned 50, and then later on, my birthday became a grim reminder of my mother’s death. … Continue reading →

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Family Outing in Downtown Chicago

Posted on March 1, 2021 by filinthegap
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Coronavirus Journal

Posted on February 28, 2021 by filinthegap

I’ve decided to participate in the National Women’s History Museum’s project to document women’s daily experiences throughout the pandemic. If you are interested to participate, please feel free to sign up. My hope is that it will get me writing … Continue reading →

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Hay na kus at the 2019 Babaylan Conference

Posted on September 27, 2019 by filinthegap

I had the honor of presenting at the conference with my beautiful bff, visual artist exrraordinaire and community activist Melanya Liwanag Aguila, and we enjoined participants to write to find home/to be home/to make home. Most of them took the … Continue reading →

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A Name Like the Desert

Posted on July 24, 2019 by filinthegap

This beautiful young woman walked into my classroom, one day and 30 minutes late. She had pursed lips, dreamy eyes, glistening curly hair tied tightly in a long ponytail, and a pair of starkly white earbuds. She had a name … Continue reading →

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Visiting Carole

Posted on March 18, 2019 by filinthegap

I was not expecting to see lake Michigan so blue between tall scrapers casting hooded shadows at 5:04 on St. Patrick’s day You, crumpled in despair between wrinkly pallid sheets, fatigued, turning on your side, a chore; talking, all the … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Long Way

Posted on March 6, 2019 by filinthegap

The Long Way by Maria Jesu Estrada is no ordinary zombie short story. In fact, as a horror story aficionada, I can safely claim that it’s one of the best horror stories I’ve read in a while. Not since Tannarive … Continue reading →

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The finality of farewells

Posted on December 9, 2018 by filinthegap

Home again in the same year. I’m not sure why, really. I tell everyone it’s to be with family. First time spending Christmas without Mom. Truth is I just want to be close to where she used to be. This … Continue reading →

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