2009-02-08T02:17:00.000-08:00

Delegates

National Artists

• VIRGILIO S. ALMARIO. Better known in literary circles by his pseudonym Rio Alma, National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario is the foremost poet and critic in Filipino aside from being an outstanding translator, editor, teacher, and cultural manager. He has won several Palanca awards, two grand prizes from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Makata ng Taon of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino, the TOYM for literature, and the Southeast Asia Write Award of Bangkok. He served as Executive Director and Commissioner of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts from 1999 to 2001, and as Director of the UP Institute of Creative Writing in 2002. In 2003, he was appointed Dean of the UP College of Arts and Letters and proclaimed National Artist for Literature.

• FRANCISCO SIONIL JOSÉ, one of the most prolific Filipino fictionists, was born on December 4, 1924 in Rosales, Pangasinan. In 1962 he published his first novel The Pretenders. Today his publications include ten novels, five books of short stories, and a book of verse. His works are available in twenty-four languages and some have recently been published in North America by Random House. He has been awarded numerous fellowships and awards, most notable being the 1980 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, the most prestigious award of its kind in Asia. José lives and works in Manila where with his wife Teresita and a faithful staff he still runs the Solidardad Publishing House and the Solidarity Bookstore, still considered the best little bookstore in Asia. In June of 2001, Jose became National Artist for Literature, the highest honor given to a Filipino writer.

• BIENVENIDO L. LUMBERA was declared National Artist for Literature in 2006. He completed his M.A. and then his PhD in Comparative Literature at Indiana University in 1967. Lumbera writes in English and Filipino, and has produced poetry, critical works, and librettos in both languages. He has received numerous awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 1993, as well as the the Gawad CCP, Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, and Manila Critics' Circle and Palanca Awards. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines where he also serves in the Board of Advisers of the Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing.

Participants/Writers

Visiting Writers

• NGUYEN BAO CHAN works as an editor and scenarist for Vietnam Television. She has published two books of poetry: The Burned River (Dong Song Chay, 1994) and Going Through Winter (Chan tran qua vet ret, 1999). She is one of the one hundred Vietnamese poets included in the recent bilingual anthology The Defiant Muse: Vietnamese Poems from Antiquity to the Present, published in 2007 by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York and The women's Publishing House, Hanoi. Most recently she read her poetry at the International Poetry Festival of Medellin, Colombia, in July 2008.

• PRABDA YOON has a BFA in Fine Arts from New York City's Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. His 2002 short story collection, Probability, won the SEA Write Award, Thailand's most prestigious literary award. His screenplay for the film Last Life in the Universe (directed by Pen-ek Ratanaruang) won Thailand's Film Critic Association Award for Best Screenplay. Prabda’s short stories and essays have been translated and published in Japan, where he has a modest following. In 2005 Prabda founded Typhoon Books, an independent publishing house for alternative books, in Bangkok.

Filipino Writers

• GÉMINO H. ABAD. The poet and literary critic Gémino H. Abad obtained his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Chicago in 1970. He has fulfilled a number of functions at UP, and is now Professor Emeritus at the College of Arts and Letters in Diliman. Abad has garnered numerous prestigious academic and literary awards including the UP Outstanding Faculty Award, Palanca and Free Press Awards, and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas. Aside from having produced over ten books of poetry, fiction and criticism, Dr. Abad edited the landmark anthologies Man of Earth (with Edna Z. Manlapaz,1989), A Native Clearing (1993) and A Habit of Shores: Filipino Poetry and Verse from English, '60s to the '90s (1999).

• CYAN ABAD-JUGO took her master's in Children's Literature at Simmons College, Boston, and is currently pursuing a PhD in English Studies: Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines. Her first book, Father and Daughter: The Figures of Our Speech, was a joint project with father Gémino H. Abad (Anvil 1996). This was followed by a collection of short fiction called Sweet Summer and Other Stories (UP Press 2004). Her most recent book, Leaf and Shadow: Stories About Some Friendly Creatures (Anvil 2008), includes her children's story "Behind The Old Aparador" which won second place at the Carlos Memorial Palanca Awards in 2003.

• EFREN ABUEG is an award-winning fictionist in Filipino. An academician by profession, he has taught language and literature at the MLQ University, Philippine College of Commerce, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Ateneo de Manila University and at present, De La Salle University. He has been president of the following organizations: Kapisanan ng mga Propesor sa Pilipino (KAPPIL, 1986-88), Linangan ng Literatura ng Pilipinas (Literary League of the Philippines) and director of the Philippine Folklore Society. His works include Mga Piling Akda ng KADIPAN (1964), Mga Agos sa Disyerto (1965, 1974 and 1993 editions), MANUNULAT: Mga Piling Akdang Pilipino (1970) and Parnasong Tagalog ni Abadilla (1973).

• EFMER AGUSTIN teaches at the Humanities Division at UP Visayas and is a reporter for the Freeman. He has attended the Iligan and Faigao workshops, and several others. He was the second place awardee for the Jimmy Y. Balacuit Literary Award at the Iligan writing workshop.

• DEAN FRANCIS ALFAR, born 1969, is a playwright, novelist, and writer of speculative fiction. He advocates the writing of fantastic literature. His articles and fiction have been published both locally and abroad, such as in Strange Horizons, Rabid Transit, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and more. His works have garnered him ten Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, including the Grand Prize for his novel, Salamanca (2006), as well as the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awards for the graphic novels Siglo: Freedom and Siglo: Passion. Alfar edits the Philippine Speculative Fiction series. He is also a comic book creator, a blogger, and an entrepreneur.

• MERLIE M. ALUNAN, an associate of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing, is a professor at the UP College in Tacloban City, where she currently resides. She obtained her MA in Creative Writing from the Silliman University in Dumaguete City in 1975. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including the Lillian Jerome Thornton Award for Nonfiction, Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, Free Press, Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Creative Work, and Likhaan Workshop Award. Her works include: Hearthstone, Sacred Tree (Anvil, 1993), Kabilin: 100 Years of Negros Oriental (1993), Amina Among the Angels, (1997), and the anthology Fern Garden: An Anthology of Women Writing in the South (1998).

• REBECCA T. AÑONUEVO, a native of Pasig City, is the author of four anthologies of poetry: Bago ang Babae, Pananahan, Nakatanim na Granada ang Diyos, and the latest, Saulado, all winners of the Don Carlos Memorial Awards for Literature. She is also the author of Talinghaga ng Gana: ang Banal sa mga Piling Tulang Tagalog ng ika-20 Siglo, which won the National Book Award for literary criticism. Añonuevo also writes essays and has published children's books. She finished her Ph.D. Literature at the De La Salle University-Manila and heads the Department of English at Miriam College.

• ROBERTO T. AÑONUEVO has entered the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards Hall of Fame for winning the Palanca Award for poetry in Filipino five times. He represented the Philippines in the Second ASEAN Poetry Conference Workshop in 1995 and was made President of the Linangan sa Imahen sa Retorika at Anyo (LIRA) in the same year. He is also founder of Oragon Writers Circle and is a former Chairman of Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas, the largest formal group of Filipino writers.

• GENEVIEVE L. ASENJO has a PhD in Literature from De La Salle University. She has won several awards for her poems and stories in Hiligaynon, among them Palanca and Gawad Komisyon awards. She is also the recipient of the NCCA Ubod New Writers Series grant, for her fiction in Kinaray-a.

• JANICE BAGAWI holds a BA in Language and Literature degree from the University of the Philippines Baguio. She is currently finishing her MA in Language and Literature, also at the University of the Philippines Baguio. She is the president and founding member of UBBOG: Young Cordillera Writers, and has been a fellow to the Baguio Writers Group Creative Writing Workshop-NCCA and the UPB-1st Cordillera Creative Writing Workshop.

• JOHN E. BARRIOS has an MA in Education from the UP Visayas and teaches at the UP High School in Iloilo. He has written and edited a number of books and has been awarded grants from the CCP and the NCCA for his short fiction.

• RONALD BAYTAN holds a PhD in English Studies (Creative Writing) from the University of the Philippines. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Literature of De La Salle University-Manila where he teaches creative writing, Philippine literature, gay/lesbian literature and world literature; and holds the Charles Lui Chi Keung Professorial Chair of China Studies. He co-edited Bongga Ka ‘Day: Pinoy Gay Quotes to Live By (Milflores Publishing) with J. Neil C. Garcia and Ralph Semino Galan. He is currently working on The Queen Lives Alone: the Orient: Personal Essays and The Queen Sings the Blues: Poetry 1992-2002.

• JOHN BENGAN graduated from University of the Philippines Mindanao with a BA in English Creative Writing on April, 2004. His first published work, an essay entitled “Penis Monologue”, saw print in The Philippine Daily Inquirer. He also placed second in the Philippine Free Press Literary Award for Short Story Category for his story “Higher Order”, which was published in the aforementioned magazine on January of 2004. Upon graduation, Bengan’s thesis, a collection of short stories, was cited as Best Thesis for the year. He has attended the Iligan National Writers Workshop in 2003 and the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop in 2004.

• RICA BOLIPATA-SANTOS teaches at the Department of English at the Ateneo de Manila. She is also consultant for Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation and is the Executive Director for the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW). She is a columnist at the Philippine Star and has published essays in various publications. She has won a Free Press Literary Award, as well as the 2007 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award for Love, Sesire, Marriage: Reflections of a Young Wife (Milflores Publishing).

• JAIME JESUS BORLAGDAN has an MA in Education and works as a consultant for the Mayor’s Office of Tabaco City in Albay. He has won the Premio Tomas Arejola for his poetry and has been widely published in national and regional publications. His first collection of Bikol poems will be published in 2009.

• JOSUA CABRERA is editorial cartoonist at the Sunstar Cebu. He has participated in several writing workshops and has won the Palanca award for his fiction in Cebuano and several awards for his editorial art.

• IAN ROSALES CASOCOT is an instructor at the Silliman University’s Department of English and Literature and the College of Mass Communication in Dumaguete City. He has been a fellow of a number of national writing workshops and the recipient of a number of awards, including the grand prize in the first Philippine Graphic Fiction Awards in 2006 for Prose and the first prize Palanca award for the short story in English.

• JOSÉ JASON LLAGAS CHANCOCO teaches at Global IT and is Public Relations Officer for SM City Naga. He is also a freelance writer and editor. He has been a fellow at the Ateneo, UST, Iyas and Iligan workshops, among others. He was shortlisted for the Maningning Miclat Award in 2003 and has won the Premio Tomas Arejola award and the Achievement Award for Literature from the Ateneo de Naga. He has a forthcoming book, Pagsasatubuanan: Poetikang Bikolnon, to be published by the NCCA.

• DOMINIC CIMAFRANCA has a BS in Electronics and Communications Engineering at the University of San Carlos. He has attended the Dumaguete and Ateneo de Davao writing workshops and has published stories in several anthologies.

• FRANKLIN YAP CIMATU is a poet and correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. In 1990, he joined the Cordillera Resource Center for Indigenous Peoples Rights in Baguio City. His poetry collection won a grand prize in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and was awarded Best in Feature Writing at the 2008 Baguio Correspondence and Broadcasters Club Media Awards. He was a fellow at the 1988 and 2008 UP National Writers Workshops.

• MIKAEL DE LARA CO has been a fellow at various national writers workshops and the recipient of numerous local and international awards, including runner-up for the Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Prize in 2006 and back-to-back first prizes in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Poetry in English (2007) and Poetry in Filipino (2008).

• KRISTIAN SENDON CORDERO has authored four collections of Bikol, Rinconada and Filipino poetry, Mga Tulang Tulala: Piling Tula sa Filipino, Bikol at Rinconada (2004), Santigwar: Mga Rawitdawit sa Bikol asin Filipino (2006) and Pusûánon: Mga Bersong Bikol [selected translations by Marne L. Kilates and H. Francisco V. Peñones Jr.] (2007). He has an upcoming collection of new Filipino and Bikol poems entitled Pagsalat Sa Pilat (2009). He has won Premio Tomas Arejola, Homelife, and Palanca awards, and the Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Award in 2006. He is also a recipient of the 2007 NCCA Writers’ Prize for Poetry. He teaches Humanities, Sociology and Creative Writing in Ateneo de Naga University.

• MICHAEL M. COROZA teaches at the Filipino Department of the Ateneo de Manila University. He is an prizewinning poet, fictionist, translator, and editor who was the former head of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA). His two books of poetry, Dili’t Dilim (1997) and Mga Lagot na Liwanag (2002) were published by the UST Press. In October 2007 he was awarded the SEA Write Award.

• CARLOS CORTES is best known for his award-winning short stories. He was born in Cebu City, grew up in Mandaue, and now resides in Mactan. His novel, Longitude, was published in 1998.

• CONCHITINA R. CRUZ teaches creative writing and comparative literature at UP Diliman. A Palanca and National Book Award winner, she is the youngest poet in A Habit of Shores, the third and last volume of the Man of Earth series of anthologies which spans a century of Philippine poetry and verse in English. While on a Fulbright grant, Cruz studied and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received her MFA in Writing. She is also a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Philippine Studies and the online journal High Chair. Her works include Disappear, a chapbook published in 2005 by High Chair, Dark Hours, published in 2005 by The UP Press, and Elsewhere Held and Lingered, published in 2008 by High Chair.

• ISAGANI R. CRUZ. Former Undersecretary of Education Isagani R. Cruz is currently Professor Emeritus, a University Fellow, and the Academic Publications Executive Publisher of De La Salle University, the Director of the Teachers Academy of Far Eastern University, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of Santo Tomas. He belongs to the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He heads the Philippine Fulbright Scholars Association, Wika ng Kultura at Agham (WIKA), Books for Philippine Schools Foundation, the Active E-Learning Technologies Foundation, and Libro Amigo Publishers. He writes for Philippine Star.

• JHOANNA LYNN CRUZ has attended the Dumaguete and UP writers workshops and has won Palanca awards for the essay and the full-length play. She has published several works in national publications and anthologies.

• JOSÉ Y. DALISAY JR., one of The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of 1993, has published more than 15 books of his stories, plays, and essays, and has won Palanca Awards, CCP Awards, National Book Awards, Famas, Urian, Star and Catholic Film awards. He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1991. He teaches English and Creative Writing as a full professor at the University of the Philippines and is also the current director of the UP Institute of Creative Writing.

• CARLOMAR DAOANA has a BA in Literature degree from the University of Santo Tomas and is currently finishing his MA in Creative Writing also in the same school. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of Area Magazine. He has been to various national writing workshops including the Dumaguete National Writng Workshop and was the grand prize winner for poetry in the 2003 Meritage Press Poetry Contest.

• ADAM DAVID is a co-founder of the independent publications editorial- and design-services entity dubbed as the Youth & Beauty Brigade. He is the author of The El Bimbo Variations. A bookmaker by trade, he works and resides in a cramped room in Project 4, Cubao, Quezon City.

• RICARDO M. DE UNGRIA earned his MFA. in the Creative Arts from the Washington University in Missouri, USA in 1990. He is a founding member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC, 1981) and the Davao Writers Guild (1999). He is also a member of PEN and the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL). For his poetry, he has received recognition from all over the world. A five-time National Book awardee, he is also a recipient of the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas and the Patnubay ng Sining Award. His most recent collection, Pidgin Levitations (UP Press, 2004), is a luxurious, refreshingly unabashed collection of his earlier work. An associate of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing, de Ungria was Chancellor of the U.P. Mindanao for two terms, and is at present the Head of the Committee on Literary Arts and at the same time Commissioner for the Arts at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

• LOURD ERNEST H. DE VEYRA has published two collections of poetry, Subterranean Thought Parade and Shadowboxing in Headphones. He has won Palanca and Free Press Awards and the very first NCCA Writers’ Prize for poetry. He fronts a spoken word-jazz-rock band, Radioactive Sago Project, which has released three full-length albums. He also writes columns for several magazines, co-hosts a Sunday radio show on NU 107, and appears in a weekly segment of TV5’s Evening News called “Word of the Lourd.”

• LEONCIO P. DERIADA. The award-winning fictionist, playwright and poet Leoncio P. Deriada received his PhD in English from Silliman University in Dumaguete City in 1981. He is also known for his work in reviving writing in Kinaray-a and for his papers on the Visayan languages and other regional literature. A Palanca Hall of Famer, he has garnered other prestigious awards such as the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, Asiaweek, Gawad CCP, Graphic, Focus, Yuhum (Iloilo), and Blue Knight Award from Ateneo de Davao for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. A recipient of the Metrobank Foundation’s Search for Outstanding Teachers in 2002, Dr. Deriada headed the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino at the U.P. Visayas. He is also an associate of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing.

• JEAN CLAIRE DY has attended the University of the Philippines and Dumaguete writing workshops and has published stories and poems in several publications.

• ANTONIO R. ENRIQUEZ has been writer-in-residence at the Cagayan de Oro Xavier University and Western Mindanao State University, and assistant regional director of the Ministry of Information for Region IX, among others. He has published three novels; Surveyors of the Liguasan Marsh (1981), The Living and the Dead (1994), and Subuanons (1999). Surveyors of the Liguasan Marsh won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature grand prize in 1982. He has also won Palancas for his short stories, The Icon (1969), and Spots on Their Wings (1973). Enriquez has also been awarded the UP Fellow for Literature by the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center in 1989.

• MARJORIE EVASCO finished her Doctorate of Arts in Language and Literature (DALL) at the De La Salle University-Manila. She has received Palanca Awards, National Book Awards, Philippines Free Press, Arinday and Gintong Aklat prizes for her poetry. She has also received various international fellowships, such as the Hawthornden Castle, Rockefeller, International Writers’s Program fellowships. Evasco's poetry books are: Dreamweavers: Selected Poems 1976-1986 (1987) and Ochre Tones: Poems in English and Cebuano (1999).

• STEVEN PRINCE PATRICK C. FERNANDEZ is the country's only Doctor of Fine Arts degree graduate (major: Creative Writing) from a Philippine university, the De La Salle University. He has authored and directed over forty plays and productions, most of them critically acclaimed, and has performed in extensive tours around the country and in over eighty cities around the world. He is Full Professor at the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology and currently the Artistic Director of the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG).

• JOSÉ NEIL C. GARCIA earned his PhD in English Studies: Creative Writing in 2003 from the University of the Philippines. He is editor of the famous Ladlad series of Filipino gay writing. He is the author of award-winning poetry collections and works in literary and cultural criticism, including Performing the Self: Occasional Prose (1993), Our Lady of the Carnival (1996), Philippine Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years (1996), Slip/pages: Essays in Philippine Gay Criticism (1998), The Sorrows of Water (2000), Kaluluwa (2001) and The Garden of Wordlessness (2005). He is currently a Professor of English, Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at the UP College of Arts and Letters, where he also serves as an Associate for Poetry at the Likhaan: U.P. Institute of Creative Writing.

• KRAGI B. GARCIA is the former director of the Institute of Kapampangan of the Angeles University Foundation where he has also taught. Garcia has done prizewinning advertising works with McCann-Erickson, J. Walter Thompson and Bates Alcantara. He writes poetry and drama, composes songs and musical scores, and maintains a column in Sun Star Pampanga.

• DAVID GENOTIVA, essayist and critic, edits PAGSUBAY, the graduate school journal of Eastern Visayas State University. He has also held teaching positions at the University of the Philippines-Tacloban, and is a regular panelist at the Lamiraw Writing Workshops in Samar.

• CHRISTINE GODINEZ-ORTEGA teaches creative writing and literature at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology. She is a founding member and has served as chair for the Literary Arts Committee of the CCP-Iligan Arts Council, and has served as regional coordinator for literature for the CCP since 1992. Her works have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She is a regular panelist at Iligan National Writers Workshop.

• VICENTE GARCÍA GROYON III holds a MFA in Creative Writing from De La Salle University-Manila, where he currently teaches as an Assistant Professor with the Department of Communication and is a candidate for a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Literature. A member of the Philippine PEN, Groyon has been a fellow at the UP National Writers Workshop and Dumaguete Writers Workshop. His first novel, The Sky Over Dimas, received the 2002 Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel, a National Book Award in 2004 and the Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Award in 2005. Groyon recently edited a Philippine PEN anthology of new fiction in English entitled A Different Voice: Fiction by Young Filipino Writers and two anthologies of flash fiction entitled Very Short Stories for Harried Readers and Mga Kuwentong Paspasan.

• RAMIL DIGAL GULLE edits various print and online publications and is a freelance writer and editor. He has participated in the UP and Dumaguete writing workshops and has won Palanca awards for his poetry and has written three books of poetry, the latest of which is Textual Relations (Finalist, National Book Award.)

• CRISTINA PANTOJA HIDALGO obtained her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Philippines in 1993. She has received awards from Gawad Balagtas, Graphic, Free Press, Focus, Manila Critics’ Circle, British Council Grant to Cambridge, and the U.P. President’s Award for Outstanding Publication. She has authored numerous books in autobiographical travel, literary criticism, five short story collections and two novels, including Recuerdo (1996) which won a Palanca for the novel. Hidalgo is currently Vice President for Public Affairs of the University of the Philippines and an associate of the UP Institute of Creative Writing.

• BONIFACIO P. ILAGAN founded Panday-Sining, the theater group of the militant Kabataang Makabayan, and eventually got involved in fulltime organizing among the cultural workers. Released after a two-year detention in 1976, he resumed writing for theater and television. He has won several times in the Palihang Aurelio V. Tolentino, Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Cultural of the Philippines Literary Contest, and the Catholic Mass Media Awards for Literature.

• ARIFAH MACACUA JAMIL has a BA in English from UP Mindanao and an LLB from Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City. He has published stories in several national publications.

• LUIS KATIGBAK's writing has earned him numerous honors, including Palanca Awards, Philippine Graphic prizes, and a Young Artists' grant from the NCCA. He has written two books so far: The King of Nothing to Do, a collection of essays, and a collection of short stories called Happy Endings, both of which were nominated for National Book Awards by the Manila Critics Circle. Luis has worked as a Senior Web Editor at Smart Communications and as Editor-in-Chief of the online music magazine Pulse.ph. He co-founded BURN Magazine and served as its Reviews Editor. He is currently a contributing editor for Imagine Magazine, and writes two weekly columns for The Manila Bulletin.

• MOOKIE KATIGBAK holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, NY, and is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of the Philippines. She has won two Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for her Poetry and was the first-prize winner in the poetry category of the 2006 Philippines Free Press Awards for Literature. She has recently published her first collection of poems titled The Proxy Eros (Anvil, 2008).

• ANGELO R. LACUESTA has received the Palanca, Philippine Graphic, NVM Gonzalez Awards and the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award for his fiction. His collections of short stories, Life Before X and Other Stories (University of the Philippines Press, 2000) and White Elephants: stories (Anvil Publishing, 2005) won National Book Awards. A third collection will be published in early 2009. He was recently a fellow at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Lacuesta is the Literary Editor of the Philippines Free Press and runs a small advertising firm.

• RODOLFO 'JUN' LANA JR. received his BA Communication Arts from the University of Santo Tomas in 1992. He has been awarded the Don Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature grand prize for his screenplays Mga Bangka ng Tag-araw and Karinyo-Brutal and his teleplays Pula and Sa Daigdig ng mga Taksil. He was also awarded Best Screenplay and Best Story in the Metro Manila Film Festival for the movie Jose Rizal. In 1992, UST awarded him the Benavidez Achievement Award for Literature.

• JASON PAUL LAXAMANA is currently a features writer for the Central Luzon Daily and organizes music events and festivals in Central Luzon. He has directed several music videos and placed 3rd in the Tagisan King Poesya (Kapampangan) organized by the Gawad Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino in 2007.

• JUNLEY LAZAGA is taking an MA in Language and Literature at the UP Baguio, where he teaches at the Department of Language, Literature and the Arts. He has participated in several regional writing workshops.

• JAIME L. AN LIM holds five graduate degrees, including an MA in English and Creative Writing from Silliman University, an EdS in Instructional Systems Technology, and a PhD in Comparative Literature, both from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has received numerous Awards including the Palanca, the 2000 Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas and the 2003 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Metrobank Foundation. He recently retired as a professor of English from MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology where he organized the Mindanao Creative Writers Group, Inc., and founded the Iligan National Writers Workshop. He is presently the Dean of the Institute of Arts and Sciences of Far Eastern University, Manila.

• LEOPOLDO LOPIDO works at the Philippine Information Agency. He has attended several writing workshops and was awarded the Jimmy Y. Balacuit Literary Award at the Iligan Writers Workshop.

• FRANCIS MACANSANTOS obtained his MA in Creative Writing from Siliman University, and has been a member of the faculties of MSU, SU and UP Baguio, teaching English and Comparative Literature. He also teaches Literature at the graduate school of University of the Cordilleras. A member of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC), Macansantos has received various awards including the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, and the NCCA Writers Prize for his epic, Womb of Water, Breasts of Earth. His works are included in the anthologies A Habit of Shores, Kamao, and Versus, and have been featured in magazines such as Flippin’ Filipinos (which was published in the US), Bulawan, by the NCCA, and all other major literary magazines in the country. His book, The Words and Other Poems, was published by the UP Press in 1997.

• MONICA MACANSANTOS has a BA in Creative Writing from UP Diliman. She teaches at the Department of Humanities in UP Los Banos. She has attended the MSU, Dumaguete and UST writing workshops and has won the Palanca (Kabataan Essay).

• ELSA MARTINEZ-COSCOLLUELA. Poet, fictionist and playwright Elsa Martinez-Coscolluela obtained her doctorate in Language and Literature at De La Salle University. She has won Palanca awards in poetry, short story, drama, teleplay and filmscript; a CCP award for the three-act play; as well as several other awards. In 1990, she received the Outstanding Artist in Literature Award from the Negros Occidental Centennial Commission. Coscolluela is the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Saint La Salle in Bacolod City.

• GLENN SEVILLA MAS is a Ford Foundation International Fellow who earned his Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His plays have been presented at the Callan Theater and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; the Top Floor Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland; the Lion Theatre in Philadelphia; the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and the Rizal Theater of the Ateneo de Manila. He has won nine Palanca awards for his English plays and has three books published by the UST Publishing House. He now teaches full-time at the Ateneo de Manila.

• PHIL HAROLD MERCURIO has an MA in Education from the UP Open University and has been involved in several creative writing activities in his native Tacloban City. He is also a licensed computer programmer.

• RESIL B. MOJARES. Trained in literature and anthropology, Resil B. Mojares, won several National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle for works in fields of literary criticism, urban and rural history, and political biography. He has been a recipient of prizes for his short stories, a national fellowship in the essay from the UP ICW, and teaching and research fellowships from the Ford, Toyota and Rockefeller foundations, Fulbright Program and Social Science Research Council (New York). He served as visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, University of Hawaii and University of Michigan. He was honored with a Gawad Balagtas award by the UMPIL in 1997 for his contributions to the development of Philippine literature. Dr. Mojares is Professor Emeritus at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City.

• TIMOTHY R. MONTES teaches in the Creative Writing program of the University of the Philippines in Mindanao (Davao City). He has won several literary awards including the Palanca for his fiction. He grew up in Samar and studied in Silliman University.

• VICTOR EMMANUEL CARMELO D. NADERA JR. Tayabas-born but Sampaloc-bred Vim Nadera is an award-winning poet, fictionist, playwright, and essayist. A B.S. and M.A. in Clinical Psychology degree-holder from the University of Santo Tomas, Nadera is considered the "Father of performance poetry in the Philippines". He represented the Philippines in the Kuala Lumpur World Poetry Reading (Malaysia, 2000), International Seminar on Southeast Asian Literature (Malaysia, 2001), Asia Arts Net Annual Conference (Taiwan, 2001) and Balagtasan sa Singapore (Singapore, 2002). His epic Mujer Indigena and novel (H)istoryador(a) won the Centennial Literary Prize in 1998. On Balagtas Day 1998, he became the youngest recipient of the Recognition Award from the Commission on Filipino Language.

• VICTOR DENNIS T. NIERVA teaches at the Department of Media Studies of Ateneo de Naga University and is currently pursuing his MA in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. In 2007, he won the grand prize for poetry in the Premio Tomas Arejola para sa Literaturang Bikol. His first book Antisipasyon: asin iba pang rawitdawit sa Bikol asin Ingles (Anticipation: and other poems in Bikol and English) won the 2007 National Book Award for Poetry.

• VOLTAIRE OYZON has an MA in English from Leyte Normal University, where he teaches Philosophy, Ethics, Sociology and Economics. He has been a writing fellow at the Visayas, Faigao, Iligan, and UP writing workshops. He has published a poetry collection in Waray (with English translation), An maupay ha mga Waray (NCCA 2008).

• JEMA M. PAMINTUAN graduated with a degree in BS Economics at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and is currently finishing her PhD in Philippine Studies. She is a full-time faculty member of the Kagawaran ng Filipino, Ateneo de Manila University, and Associate Director of the Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices. Her collection of poetry entitled Bunton-Buntong Hininga has been published by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts as part of the Ubod New Authors Series. Some of her critical essays appeared in Bulawan: Journal of Philippine Arts and Culture, Humanities Diliman, Plaridel, and Philippine Studies, Last 2006, she was a recipient of the Ateneo Library of Women's Writings "New Stars: A New Generation of Filipina Writers.”

• JEAN LEE C. PATINDOL is a twice-awarded grand prize winner of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) Alfrredo Navarro Salanga Prize for Children's Literature for Papa's House, Mama's House (2004; Adarna) and Tight Times (2007; Adarna). She has recently gone international with her third book, My One-Boobed Mamma (Living Waters, USA; 2008).

• ALLAN POPA has an MFA in Creative Writing from DLSU Manila, and teaches at the Filipino Department at the Ateneo de Manila. He has been the recipient of a continuing fellowship at the Master Class New York State Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is widely published and anthologized and has published seven books of poetry and has won several awards, including the Free Press Literary Award, and has twice received the National Book Award, for Morpo and Samsara.

• DANTON REMOTO is an Associate Professor of English at the Ateneo de Manila University. He received the AB and MA from AdMU and the MPhil in Publishing Studies from University of Stirling in Scotland. He also received a Fulbright grant for a Dissertation Enrichment Program at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. He is the co-editor of the landmark book Ladlad, and has written about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in the last twenty years. He is the chairman of Ang Ladlad, which will run for party-list elections for the Philippine Congress in May of 2010, and he is being drafted by the Opposition to run as one of its senatorial candidates in the May 2010 elections.

• DINAH ROMA-SIANTURI was born in 1968. She graduated from the DLSU in 1990 with a double degree in Literature and Marketing Management. She was a fellow at the 1988 Siliman Writers Workshop and the 1990 UP Writers Workshop. She has held positions at the CCP Coordinating Center for Literature and the UP Film Center, as its Cinematique Head. She completed her MA in Comparative Culture, major in Japanese Visual Culture at Kyoritsu Women's University in Hachioji, Tokyo, in April 1997. At present, she is the Director of the Undergraduate Japanese Studies Program at DLSU.

• EDGAR CALABIA SAMAR is an instructor at the Filipino Department of the Ateneo De Manila University. He has three Don Carlos Memorial Awards for both his fiction and poetry and was the recipient of the 2005 NCCA Writers Prize for his novel Walong Diwata ng Pagkahulog.

• AIDA F. SANTOS-MARANAN has written, edited and published more than 100 articles and publications on various subjects (politics, feminism, violence against women, migration, sex trafficking, prostitution, among others), among which are four anthologies of poetry: Pana-panahon: Isang Tanong, Isang Sagot at iba pang Tula (2005); Spaces: Earthbound, Skybound (2000); Woman-to-Woman (1994); and Dobol Helix, Selected Poems 1971-1991 (1991). She taught women and development and feminist theories at the masteral program of St. Scholastica’s College. Aida co-founded several women’s groups and belongs to several national and international organizations and human rights networks.

• BENILDA S. SANTOS is a professor in Filipino at the Ateneo de Manila University. She is a poet, essayist and author. Santos helped in the translation of the 1986 election primers from English to Filipino. Santos has also served as director for Ateneo National Writers Workshop. She writes film criticism. Among her books are Kuwadro Numero Uno and Alipato. Kuwadro was part of the UP Press UP Jubilee Student Edition 2006. Her works have won in the National Book Awards and the Palancas.

• TARA FT SERING is a freelance writer and editor, and is managing editor of Contemporary Art Philippines. She is also a regular columnist at the Philippine Star. She has published essays and short stories in several publications and anthologies, and has published 4 novellas and a collection of short stories. She has won the Philippine Graphic and Palanca awards, as well as the National Book Award for Almost Married in 2003.

• JONATHAN JIMENA SIASON has an MFA in Creative Writing from the De La Salle University-Manila. His stories have seen print in national publications and anthologies. In 2008, he was a finalist in the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards (Fiction). He is currently a college instructor at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

• ANGELO V. SUAREZ is an advertising copywriter and is taking his MA Communication at UST. He has been a fellow at several local and international workshops. He has authored two books of poetry and co-authored two others, and has also exhibited and performed at various exhibitions. He has won several awards for his poetry, among them the Bridges of Struga International Poetry Prize, Palanca Awards, and the National Book Award for The Nymph of MTV.

• ANTHONY TAN obtained his PhD English Literature, in 1982 from the Silliman University where he edited Sands and Coral, 1976. For more than a decade, he was a member of the English faculty at SU and regular member of the panel of critics in the Silliman Writers Workshop. He taught briefly at the DLSU and was Chair of the English Dept. at MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology where he continues to teach. For his fiction and children’s stories he has won a number of awards, among them, the Focus award for poetry, the Palanca 1st prize for Poems for Muddas in 1993; also the Palanca for essay. Among his works are The Badjao Cemetery and Other Poems, 1985 and Poems for Muddas, Anvil, 1996.

• ALICIA TAN-GONZALES studied at La Salle College in Bacolod in 1975 and at the Ateneo de Manila University in 1981. She writes in Hiligaynon, the language of her birth and thus the language she is most comfortable with. She has earned many rewards, including numerous CCP writing grants and a first place in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature for Short Story in the Hiligaynon Division in 1999.

• JOHN IREMIL E. TEODORO has an MA in Creative Writing from De La Salle University. He has won several Palanca Awards for his short stories in Hiligaynon and Filipino, as well as for essays and full-length plays. He has been writing fellow for Filipino Poetry at the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing and Research Center at DLSU. He has published several books, one of which (Pagmumuni-muni at Pagtatalak ng Sirenang Nagpapanggap na Prinsesa) was a a recipient of the 2007 National Book Award for Essay/Creative Nonfiction.

• MACARIO TIU is a professor of literature at the Ateneo de Davao University, and is the editor of Tambara, the university journal. He writes fiction and verse in both English and Visayan. Davao: Reconstructing History from Text and Memory won the National Book Award for History in 2005. He has won several Don Carlos Palanca Memroial Awards for Literature for his poetry and short stories, and has written several books on literature and history. His Davao 1890-1910: Conquest and Resistance in the Garden of Gods was a finalist in the National Book Awards.

• JOEL M. TOLEDO is currently finishing his MA degree in Creative Writing (majoring in poetry) at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He is an instructor at the Department of English of Miriam College. In 2005, he won first prize for his poetry collection, "What Little I Know of Luminosity" in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He was also awarded second place for his poetry entry in the 2004 Palanca Awards. Joel is the recipient of the 2006 National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Writers Prize for poetry, a grant for the writing and possible publication of his first book of poetry.

• ROLANDO B. TOLENTINO is Professor at the UP Film Institute. He is author of National/Transnational: Subject Formation and Media in and on the Philippines (Ateneo Press, 2001), editor of Geopolitics of the Visible: Essays on Philippine Film Cultures (Ateneo De Manila University Press, 2000), coeditor with Sarah Raymundo of Kontra-Gahum: Academics Against Political Killings (IBON Books, 2006) and co-editor with Bienvenido Lumbera, Judy Taguiwalo and Arnold Alamon, Serve the People (Ibon Books, 2008). He chairs the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND-UP).

• KATRINA TUVERA earned her BA in Humanities (Art History) from University of the Philippines-Diliman. She resides in Manila and divides her time between teaching literature and creative writing at De La Salle University-Taft and completing her MA Creative Writing thesis at University of the Philippines-Diliman. She is currently working on the sequel to her first novel, The Jupiter Effect.

• JANUAR E. YAP currently teaches literature and journalism at the Cebu Normal University in Cebu City. He is also the page editor of SunStar Daily, where he also maintains a regular column. He was a recipient of the NCCA Ubod New Writers’ Series, under which he published a collection of short stories titled Ang Aktibistang Gi-Syphilis. He has won a Palanca Award and has been a fellow to the Dumaguete and Iligan Writers Workshops.

• ALVIN B. YAPAN is an assistant professor at the Ateneo De Manila University, where he finished his MA in Philippine Literature in Filipino. He is currently finishing his PhD in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Among his awards are four Don Carlos Palanca Memorial prizes, the 2005 NCCA Writers Prize for Fiction, and the National Book Award (2006) and the Juan C. Laya Prize for Best Novel for Ang Sandali ng mga Mata (Ateneo Press, 2006). He is also a prizewinning filmmaker.

• LAWRENCE YPIL teaches at the English Department and Fine Arts program at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he is taking his MA in Literary and Cultural Studies. He has published poems and essays in various publications and won several awards for his poetry in English, among them Palanca (Poetry in English) and Free Press Awards (Poetry).

• ALFRED A. YUSON, nicknamed Krip, has authored 22 books thus far. He has gained international and local distinctions such as the Rockefeller Foundation grant for residency in Italy, the SEAWrite (SouthEast Asian Writers) Award bestowed by Thai royalty for lifetime achievement, and a place in the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He has also enjoyed fellowships in various international writing programs, and participated in literary conferences, festivals and reading tours all over the world.

Guests

• CHRISTINE S. BELLEN is a professor and the director of the Ateneo Institute for Literary Arts and Practice (AILAP) at the Ateneo de Manila University. She is author of more than twenty children’s literature books and of three musical plays for children. She is the narrator of the revived show Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang.

• KARINA AFRICA BOLASCO has been in the book publishing business for twenty-nine years now—ten years at National Bookstore and nineteen years at Anvil, which she founded and nurtured to become the biggest and most prestigious publishing house in the country today. Anvil has been cited Publisher of the Year eight times and close to 125 of its titles have been given the National Book Award in different categories by the Manila Critics Circle. Karina was hailed as one of the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service in 1995 for her work in book publishing and literacy development. She was the 2004 Fellow for the Asia Leadership Fellow Program of the Japan Foundation and International House of Japan and has spoken in many other book publishing conferences on publishing issues. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature.

• ROFEL G. BRION is professor of creative writing, inter-disciplinary studies and literature at the Ateneo de Manila University. He received the PhD in English Studies-Creative Writing from the University of the Philippines, and was a fellow at the UP Writers Workshop, the University of Iowa International Writing Program, Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers, and the Berlin Interational Literature Festival. He won 1st prize in the Gawad Galian sa Tula as well as a National Book Award for Baka Sakali, his first book of poems. He has published two other poetry collections: Story and Sandali: Mga Pili at Bagong Tula.

• SERVANDO 'BEN' HALILI JR. is an author and historian based in Zamboanga City. He teaches at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University. He is currently working on missionary narratives and photographs and is scheduled to leave for the United States this year in a Fulbright research grant. Ben has PhD in American Culture Studies which he earned in 2003 at the Bowling Green State University, Ohio.

• ANTONIO A. HIDALGO founded and currently manages Milflores Publishing, Inc, which has published 80 titles since the year 2000. Tony is a bilingual writer in English and Filipino who has written 17 books and has won a number of national awards for his short fiction. He served in the cabinet of former President Fidel Ramos as Secretary General of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council. He teaches “Special Problems of Creative Writing in the Philippines” in the graduate Creative Writing Program in U.P. Diliman.

• JOSÉ F. LACABA has received recognition from several eminent award-giving bodies such as the Manila Critics' Circle, Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), FAMAS, Film Academy of the Philippines, Urian, Manila Film Festival, Palanca, National Press and the Centennial Honors for the Arts. His poetry collections include Mga Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran (1979, 1996), Sa Daigdig ng Kontradiksyon (1991) and Sa Panahon ng Ligalig (1991). Many of his screenplays have been ingrained in the Filipino consciousness; these include the acclaimed Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (1984), Sister Stella L (1984), Orapronobis (1989) and Segurista (1996). Pete has served as a deputy chairman of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), and is the current executive editor of Summit’s YES Magazine.

• PRISCILLA SUPNET MACANSANTOS holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Delaware and has written poetry in English, Filipino, and recently, Iluko. She won second prize in the English Essay category of the Palanca Awards in 1998. She is Vice Head of the Executive Committee on Literary Arts of the NCCA and is currently Chancellor of the University Philippines Baguio.

• CHARLSON L. ONG, resident fellow of the Institute of Creative Writing and fictionist, scriptwriter, and singer extraordinaire, obtained an AB in Psychology from the University of the Philippines in 1977, and currently teaches literature and creative writing under UP's Department of English and Comparative Literature. He has joined several writers' workshops here and abroad, and has acquired numerous grants and awards for his fiction, including the Palanca, Free Press, Graphic, Asiaweek, National Book Award, and the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Award for Excellence. His novel, Embarrassment of Riches published by UP Press in 2002, won the Centennial Literary Prize. His short stories range from parodies of well-loved Filipino texts to insightful treatments of Chinese-Filipino culture. These have been collected into Men of the East and Other Stories (1990 and 1999), Woman of Am-Kaw and Other Stories (1993), Conversion and Other Fictions (1996), and Banyaga (2007).

• ELMER ALINDUGAN ORDOÑEZ obtained his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1963, and post doctoral studies from Oxford University-London in 1966. He has been professor of English, associate for literary criticism at the UP Creative Writing Center, and chairperson for projects at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Ordoñez edited Introduction to Literature (1974) and Festschriften: Leopoldo Y. Yabes: A Memorial Volume (1985). He has also published a number of books, including Early Joseph Conrad (1969) and The Other View: Notes on Philippine Writing and Culture (1989).

• ESTHER M. PACHECO was editor of the internationally recognized interdisciplinary journal, the Saint Louis Quarterly, before she became chief editor director of the Ateneo de Manila University Press, where she served as director for some three decades. She has been cited internationally as an accomplished scholarly publisher, putting out significant Philippine books in the social sciences and the humanities. She built the Ateneo Press from a struggling and losing business into a financially stable and viable publishing enterprise. A stalwart of the Philippine book industry, she was given the Manila Critics Lifetime Achievement Award for Book Publishing in the Philippines in 2006.

• D(ANILO FRANCISCO) M. REYES enrolled in Philosophy on a scholarship at the Ateneo de Manila University where, upon discovering the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Edith L. Tiempo, he decided on a literary career. He was editor of Heights; took his AB, 1989, and MA, 1995, both in English, at the Ateneo. He was a writing fellow at the Silliman Writers Workshop in 1989, and began teaching Filipino language and literature at the Ateneo that same year. At present, he is moderator of Heights and co-administrator of its annual writers for the annual Dean's Awards for the Arts in the Ateneo. His first book of poems is Promising Lights.

• JUN CRUZ REYES, one of the most prolific writers in Filipino of our time, has received recognition for his teaching as Best Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman-College of Arts and Letters. In 2002, he was awarded the Gawad Alagad ni Balagtas by the Unyon ng Manunulat sa Pilipinas and Most Outstanding Alumni for Literature and the Arts by the Hagonoy Institute during its Diamond Anniversary. His book Etsa-Pwera, won the 1st Prize for the National Centennial Literary Contest in 2008, and a National Book Award in 2001. Reyes also offers free workshops in writing, journalism, documentary filmmaking, painting and many others, in his Bulacan home.

• RAMON C. SUNICO manages Cacho Publishing House. He writes poetry, stories for children, short fiction and essays. He is also an editor, a book designer. a translator and a book project manager. He has published two poetry books: The Secret of Graphite: Poems in 2 Tongues and Bruise: A 2-Tongue Job and three children's books. His works have been published in various anthologies in the Philippines, the Netherlands, Germany and the USA.

• HOPE SABANPAN-YU is associate professor of literature at the Department of Languages and Literature of the University of San Carlos. She received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of the Philippines (Diliman) in 2007 and has written several poetry collections. She recently published Kapulongan: Conversations with Cebuano Writers (2008) and Mila’s Mother (2008), a translation of Austregelina Espina-Moore's Ang Inahan ni Mila.

• LITO ZULUETA is a writer and film critic. He was a judge in the 1999 Free Press Literary Awards in the Fiction and Essay divisions and a jury member for the 2008 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. He currently writes for The Philippine Daily Inquirer, and his views on cinema are highly regarded.

Taboan 2009 | Delegates