Mud on the Moon

 "A beautiful story of a daughter in the act of knowing her father. . . . stitching and restitching memories, records, artifacts, history, mystery, and fiction.”—Ananda Lima, author of Mother/land

Mud on the Moon by Nita Noveno is a hybrid memoir that weaves a daughter’s journey of discovering her Filipino immigrant father’s hidden past with imaginative storytelling, offering a look into migration, identity, and the intergenerational legacies that shape who we are. 

Mud on the Moon is a hybrid memoir that intertwines a daughter's exploration of her Filipino immigrant father's obscured past with a reimagined version of his untold story.

Born in Southeast Alaska, Nita Noveno traces the legacy of her father, who arrived in the US in 1928 as part of a wave of Filipino men seeking better opportunities through manual labor in agriculture and other industries. The book alternates between Nita's coming-of-age story and imagined chapters of her father's life, revealing the gaps and silences that lie between their experiences. With a blend of personal and historical imagery, Mud on the Moon offers a rare glimpse into the lives of Filipino immigrants in America. It is a meditation on how family, memory, and identity are shaped by the stories we inherit, both spoken and unspoken, across generations.