E.J. Dreamweaver

Black-Filipina Writer

Sunflower: Black Baby is now Available on Amazon

Sunflower: Black Baby

A Black Filipino and Blasian coming-of-age novel by Elaine Joy Edaya Degale

Mirasol is ugly and she knows it.

Her mother, a fair-skinned Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), doesn't seem to fully understand her. Everything was given to Mirasol, except the feeling that she was beautiful, the feeling that she belonged, and the certainty that she was loved.

Between Mindanao, Philippines, and New York City, Mirasol grows up caught between two worlds that seem determined to tell her who she is and who she should be.

Told as a Black girl diary mixtape, Sunflower: Black Baby is a nonlinear coming-of-age story about race, colorism, Filipino identity, Blackness, migration, motherhood, faith, class, family, and belonging.

Moving between Mindanao and New York City, the novel explores what it means to grow up Black and Filipino, to navigate a Blasian identity, and to search for belonging in cultures that do not always know what to make of you.

At its heart, Sunflower: Black Baby is a story about becoming someone you can finally love.

It is a story for Black girls, Filipino girls, Blasian readers, BIPOC readers, and anyone who has ever questioned where they belong.

Through Mirasol's memories, relationships, wounds, and dreams, Elaine Joy Edaya Degale explores the intersections of race and Filipino culture, colorism and beauty, migration and motherhood, poverty and class, faith and identity.

This is a story rooted in Black Filipino literature and Mindanao, written across borders, generations, and cultures.

Ultimately, Sunflower: Black Baby asks what happens when you spend your whole life learning to see yourself through other people's eyes, and finally decide to see yourself for yourself.

The answer is found in the journey toward becoming someone you love, and discovering that true beauty is what your soul crafts at the tip of your pen.

About the Author

Elaine Joy Edaya Degale is a Black Filipino writer, poet, filmmaker, educator, and cultural organizer whose work explores race, migration, identity, literature, and the complex experiences of the Filipino diaspora. Her work moves between Mindanao and New York City, bringing Black Filipino and BIPOC perspectives into contemporary literature.