Issue 15 Contributors

Edgar B. Maranan is a poet, essayist, fictionist, playwright, writer of children’s stories, and translator. He has won a total of thirty prizes—a record number—for his works in English and Filipino, in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, and was inducted into the Palanca Hall of Fame in 2000. He has also won awards in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Annual Literary Contest, Palihang Aurelio Tolentino Playwriting Competition, Institute of National Language poetry competition, Philippines Free Press Literary Awards, Philippine Graphic Magazine Nick Joaquin Literary Prize, Filamore Tabios Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize (Meritage Press, USA), and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY)-Salanga Writers Prize, which he won three years in a row, from 1989 to 1991. Maranan’s third poetry book, Passage / poems 1983-2006, came out in October 2007, under the Bookmark imprint. Most of the poems in this book are part of poetry collections which won in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Voyage, 1984; Hinterland, 1987; Star Maps, 1988; and Tabon, 2000). He is an active member of the newly formed Baguio Writers Group.

Aberjhani, poet, historian, journalist, blogger, and novelist, appears for the second time in our online magazine. He is co-author of the award-winning Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts On File); and author of The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois. The recently published Bridge of Silver Wings is his third book of poetry; and Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World his first novel. He is currently at work on the completion of a 17-year book project, titled Elemental: the Power of Illuminated Love, featuring the work of the critically acclaimed award-winning artist Luther E. Vann with poetry and prose by Aberjhani. In addition, he is founder of the popular Creative Thinkers International website.

Arturo Luz, painter, sculptor and designer, received the title of National Artist in Visual Arts in 1997. Member of the Neo-Realists and the Thirteen Moderns, a group of modern artists established in 1938 and led by Victorio C. Edades, he described himself as “semi-representational, semi-abstracted.” He is best known for his linear art and his series on street musicians, vendors, cyclists and carnival performers, but also sculpted using wood, concrete and metal. His works are characterized by sophisticated simplicity and exemplify sublime austerity in their expression and form.

Kristian Cordero is our regular contributor from Bikol who teaches literature at the Ateneo de Naga University. Writing his poetry both in Filipino and the Bikol language, Kristian is one of the young poets spearheading a renaissance in Bikol writing and realizing its possibilities in reflecting a modern consciousness. The author of three award-winning books of poetry, he has attended the University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop and has won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards and the Premio Tomas Arejola for Bikol Literature, among many others.

Igor V. de la Peña Jr is building up his collection of ekphrastic poetry. A second-time contributor to our magazine, he is a graduate of Political Science from UP Diliman and has been a fellow for poetry in the UP, Iligan and Iyas Writing Workshops. His poems, stories and essays have been published in various magazines and anthologies. He is currently based in Dumaguete and is a fellow of the 2008 Dumaguete National Writers Workshop conducted by National Artist Edith Tiempo.

Fernando Zobel, born in Manila in 1924, was one of the leading modernists in Philippine art. A keen observer of Filipino painting, he said, “For a painter perhaps the most striking thing about the Philippines is the quality of light. Normally we have to deal with the white colorless glare that bounces off every surface and refuses to cast a shadow… The implications of this kind of light to painters are legion, because although a painter may not paint what he sees, his surroundings condition what he paints.”