Maritess Zurbano

Maritess Zurbano received 2010 GAP Award funding for time and travel to do research for her book Rites of Enchantment: A Memoir. As one of history’s few female Filipina-American professional magicians, Maritess would like to learn answers to questions such as: Why, traditionally, do women on a magic stage wear bikinis while the men wear tuxedos? Why did Caesar’s Palace want to hire her—simply because she matched their Asian themed showroom? Why is there a long tradition of racially-themed magic acts that are still performed today on the Las Vegas Strip? Her work was recently featured in The Crab Creek Review as the first piece of non-fiction prose to make an appearance in the literary journal.