It is impossible to know the mind and heart of Black America without reading the works of Edward P. Jones.

Will Cocks left Manila this month for reassignment in Beijing. I will always remember him for the special programs we worked on, one of them the Edward P. Jones Roadshow (Manila, Dumaguete, Makati, Pasay, Pasig). It feels like, only yesterday, Will himself brought Ed to the airport at the end of a hectic but fulfilling week. The International Book Fair in Manila is once again looming on the horizon, and so I am inundated with these memories.

Will was a young, entry-level officer when he came to the Philippines. Manila was his first post. Yet, he diligently prepared for this extremely complex program. He maintained communication with Ed via e-mail—no easy task because Ed hardly uses e-mail and is for the most part unreachable. He read most of Ed’s books, which National Book Store ordered from the U.S.A., the Pulitzer-Prize-winning The Known World in particular. He obtained Ed’s multiple signatures not as autographs but on tedious, official forms that were necessary for Ed’s arrival and stay. He was always there for Ed—at the workshop in Writers’ Village and the lecture-discussion at the American Corner in Dumaguete City; at the PAO’s dinner reception in honor of Ed at Barbara’s in Intramuros; at the luncheon to meet local artists on Albert Avellana’s compound; at the dialogue-discussion with Philippine literary luminaries at National Artist for Literature Frankie Sionil Jose’s La Solidaridad, in partnership with Philippine P.E.N. International; at the lecture-discussion sessions with senior students at De La Salle University and University of Asia & the Pacific; at the tea with board members of the American Studies Association of the Philippines at the Fort; at the book-signing in National Book Store; at media interviews; and at International Book Week in Ayala Museum with another Pulitzer-Prize winner, Junot Diaz. It was Will who conducted a public interview with Ed at a National Book Store branch in Makati, and people lined up to buy books and have them signed by Ed afterwards.

Time has a way of plodding on while bringing back everything. I missed Ed, and I now miss Will.

I hope that American literary programs will always be in Will’s portfolio.