Angelo Suárez, whose experiments with written verse as well as performed poetry concepts puts him at the lead of this growing movement among younger Filipino poets, comes out for the first time in our ezine. An MA Communication student at the University of Santo Tomas while working as a creative hotshot in country’s advertising industry, Gelo is the author of three books of poetry: The Nymph of MTV, else it was purely girls, and Dissonant Umbrellas: Notes Toward a Gesamtkunstwerk. He has won prizes from the Carlos Palanca and Maningning Miclat Foundations, and the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle. He has also won the first Bridges of Struga International Poetry Prize from UNESCO and the Republic of Macedonia for Nymph. His close collaboration with visual artists has resulted in Umbrellas, the online Crux with Garibay, and a fourth book in the making, s&wich.
Emmanuel Garibay has been called a contemporary “icon” in Philippine art. A former sociology student at U.P. at Los Baños and the son of Methodist pastor and a government worker in Kidapawan, North Cotabato, Manny went into the arts while bringing his experience of the streets, a perspective on those at society’s fringes, activist rallies, and what he calls “the richness of the poor” and “cultural meanings.” His images, which combine both the humor, despair, and the struggle for dignity he has seen among his favorite subjects from the working class, have been called raw, vigorous, post-religious and postcolonial, and even avant-garde. A Juror’s Choice of the Art Association of the Philippines, and a recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Awards in 2000, Manny has exhibited extensively in Asia, the United States, and Europe.
Niño Manaog, also appearing for the first time on poet’sPicturebok, is from Naga City in the Bicol Region but currently resides in Iloilo City, the Visayas. He was a fellow at the 2009 Silliman Writers Workshop.
Kristian Cordero is on leave from his teaching duties at the Ateneo de Naga in Bicol, to take up graduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. New York-based Bikolano poet Luis Cabalquinto has called the award-winning Cordero “one of the bright lights of the recent Bikolnon writing renaissance,” and of his book Pusuanon, Cabalquinto further writes, “Cordero presents in his poetry… intimate sketches and portraits of the people and land of his birth. He does this with a confident hand, cool detachment and, very often, with tongue-in-cheek humor. Fully in command of his material, Cordero's poetic diction deftly fuses real and surreal elements to elicit from the thoughtful reader not only high amusement but also deep understanding.”
Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles has published four books of poetry, Menos Kuwarto (2002), Ilahas (2004), Hindi Man Lang Nakita (2005), and Parang (2008), all by High Chair publications. One of the leading younger voices in Filipino poetry, Ayer has been described by High Chair editor Allan Popa as “a student of the short lyric: the delicate art that requires sharpened senses for the little variations and nuances brought by each poetic ingredient...” Arguelles is part of Batch 1998 of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (Lira), the long-running poetry clinic by National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario (Rio Alma). He has also been a fellow of the 36th UP National Writers Workshop (2000) and has won awards for his poetry from the Commission on the National Language.
Ruel de Vera joined the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the country’s leading broadsheet daily, immediately after college. He is associate editor of the newspaper and its weekend magazine, the Sunday Inquirer. Ruey is an award-winning author, poet, and editor, whose works include The Zero Hour (The Personal War of Basilio J. Valdez), The Spirit Quest Chronicles (Books 1 & 2), Youngblood 2, and Writing Home: 19 Writers Remember Their Hometowns. He teaches journalism at Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Communication, and he has won the Palanca Awards, Catholic Mass Media Awards and the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards. His poetry books are The Most Careful of Stars and Faulty Electrical Wiring (Office of Research and Publication, Ateneo de Manila University, 2005).
Luisa Igloria writes from Virginia, where she is an associate professor in the MFA Creative Writing Program of Old Dominion University. Originally from Baguio, and a member of the Hall of Fame of the Philippines’ Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, Luisa has made America her second home where she raises her family and continues to write her well-anthologized poetry. She has written numerous books, the latest of which is Trill & Mordent. Her work has appeared in various journals including Poetry, Crab Orchard Review, The Missouri Review, Indiana Review, to name a few. Her latest award is the 2009 Ernest Sandeen Poetry Prize for Juan Luna’s Revolver, which came out in 2008. Despite her many literary engagements, she generously sends regular contributions to poet’sPicturebook, poems which are most of the time newly-minted.
Virgilio S. Almario was awarded the Order of National Artist for Literature in 2003.
And our profuse thanks to New York-based Filipino artist and designer Mario Mercado for lending us his magical graphic lizard, which we now adopt as the chameleon-like mascot-at-large of poet’sPicturebook.
