Mario Mercado is a nature photographer, multimedia artist, and a retiree from the American art and design industry (specif. in rugs, carpets, tapestries, and photography) where he counted among his clients Hollywood actors, even including Air Force One, Volvo, General Motors, American Express, Waldorf Astoria. He enjoys his retirement, with wife Joni and several dogs and cats, at Canopus Hollow, Putnam Valley, New York. Mario attended the School of Visual Arts for advertising design, and the Art Students League (for fine arts) of New York.
R. Torres Pandan is a poet, fictionist, lawyer, and recently resumed writing his first novel. He has published his poetry and fiction in various Philippine publications and has collected his poems in a book titled Days of Grace (USLS Press, 2005). He has been a fellow at the Silliman and UP Writers workshops, and a senior fellow at the USLS Iyas Writers Workshop. He is presently Dean of the College of Law of the University of St. La Salle and lives in Bacolod City with his wife and three children.
Kristian Dalao, who has completed the MFA Creative Writing program of De La Salle University, “works as an Internet cafe caretaker in the morning & as an online ESL mouth in the evening. In breathers he designs sound installation projects whose demos are uploaded in some MySpace page.”
Mikael Co, who also signs his works as Mikael de Lara Co, is one of our younger leading poets who are bilingual and widely published. He has won both the Palanca and the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards. He graduated with a BS in Environmental Science from the Ateneo de Manila, and he is supposed to be working on his MA in Panitikang Pilipino, Malikhaing Pagsulat, in the same university. His interests range, he writes, from literature and the martial arts to basketball and beer and rock music, the environment, post-colonialism and cultural studies, philosophy and political communications. He works with the office of Senator Mar Roxas.
Judith Balares Salamat teaches English and Literature at the Central Bicol University of Agriculture (CBSUA) in Pili, Camarines Sur. A fellow of the 1997 Iligan National Writers Workshop, she has went on to win awards, including the Bikol Premio Tomas for Writer of the Year and for an essay on teaching and creativity, and a Civil Service essay writing contest, first place. Judith holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, major in Regional Literatures minor in Cultural Anthropology, from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. She writes columns for a local weekly, the Bikol Reporter, and is the current treasurer of the regional literary organization, Kabulig-Bikol.
J. Neil Garcia is one of our most accomplished poets in English, teacher of creative writing and comparative literature, writer of numerous books of poetry collections, literary and cultural criticism, postcolonial studies, and editor and advocate of Filipino gay writing, especially of the famous Ladlad series. He earned his A.B. Journalism, magna cum laude, from the University of Santo Tomas in 1990; M.A. in Comparative Literature in 1995, and Ph.D. in English Studies: Creative Writing in 2003 from the University of the Philippines. He is currently a Professor of English at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, where he also serves as Associate for Poetry at the Likhaan: U.P. Institute of Creative Writing. He has won numerous awards, including the Palanca and the National Book Award, and has lectured and received grants and fellowships internationally.
Romulo P. Baquiran, Jr. has two books, Mga Tula ng Paglusong (1992) and Onyx (2003), which won the National Book Award for poetry in 2003, and has published his essays and stories in various anthologies. His other awards include the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, and Talaang Ginto. He has translated Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, and Auguste Strindberg. He has edited many books, among which are the new editionof Urbana at Feliza (1994, 2007), Pablo Neruda: Mga Piling Tula with National Artist Virgilio Almario, ASEANO (1995), and Kuwentong Siyudad with Roland B. Tolentino and Alwin Aguirre. Currently he is Assistant Professor for creative writing and literature at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines.
Victor Dennis Nierva says of himself, “I teach, act, direct, create graphic and digital artworks, design websites; I sing, crowd the broadcaster's booth on Sundays, write ocassionally for local papers, give failing grades. I am a self-confessed techgeek and a coffee and tea-addict. I cook a little.” Vic has published the bilingual (Bikol an English) poetry book Antisipasyon, which your editor helped translate, and works with Department of Media Studies, Ateneo de Naga University, in Naga City, Bikol.
Jose Marte Abueg won the University of the Philippines Centennial Prize for poetry in 2008 with his collection that has now been printed as Bird Lands, Rivers, and other Melancholies by UP Press (2009). Mart is an editor and journalist specializing in finance and economics (he is a graduate of the UP School of Economics) with no formal training in writing. He started writing poetry in 2001 “to be a better man.”
Rio Alma (Virgilio S. Almario) was proclaimed National Artist for Literature in 2003.
Simeon Dumdum, Jr., award-winning poet and essayist, has read his poems in gatherings here and abroad, and has published them in three collections. His poems are included in many international anthologies. His most recent work, Ah, Wilderness! A Journey Through Sacred Time, a book of essays, meditations, and “homilies,” was published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. Jun works as a Regional Trial Court judge in Cebu City.
Salvador Ching is a Fine Arts graduate of the University of Santo Tomas, Major in Painting, and made it early as one of the Five Philippine Representative to the ASEAN Youth Painting Workshop & Exhibitions in Indonesia. After a string of awards and citations, he moved on to the Asia Biennial Art Exhibition in Havana, Bangladesh, Seoul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Vietnam. He has had seven solo shows, and has participated in many cultural outreach projects in many provinces. He has been an official of various art associations, including the Society of Philippine Sculptors, CAP, and a member of the NCCA visual arts executive committee.
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) had a career production of over 1, 500 paintings, a dozen sculptures, and countless drawings and various other projects which included an animated cartoon for Walt Disney, a TV commercial for Lanvin chocolates, and the Chupa Chups logo. (Wikipedia)
Carlos Botong Francisco (1912-1969) is said to have dreamed of his death—a huge funeral procession in his hometown of Angono, which he followed wondering who it was being buried. He was posthumously conferred the title of National Artist in 1973.
Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575), called “Long Peter” because of his height, was a Dutch historical painter. He was born and died in Amsterdam, painted there and in Antwerp, though his genre scenes were influential in Italy. (Wikipedia)
