Creative writing tutor Dr Midge Gillies will be in conversation with Jill Damatac in this free Zoom event on Thursday 8 January 2026, 7 to 8pm.
Born in Manila in the final years of the Marcos regime, Jill is an ex-undocumented Filipino American-raised British writer, photographer, and filmmaker. Dirty Kitchen is Jill’s Filipino American memoir of family, food, and growing up undocumented for 22 years in the United States.
Jill started Dirty Kitchen, which was published in in May 2025 and has received rave reviews, for her dissertation on PACE’s Master’s in Creative Writing and signed a book deal in her second year. She is currently working on a novel.