No. 40 • Contributors
Dinah Roma-Sianturi, an associate professor of literature at De La Salle University, is the director of its Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center. Her first collection of poetry A Feast Of Origins (2004) was given the National Book Award by the Manila Critics' Circle while her recent work Geographies of Light (2007) won a Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature. Dinah obtained her MA in Comparative Culture from Kyoritsu Women’s University in Japan and her PhD in Literature from De La Salle ,and is currently research fellow of the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
Rofel G. Brion, Ph.D. is professor of interdisciplinary studies, literature and creative writing at the Ateneo de Manila University. His first book of poems, Baka Sakali (Maybe by Chance), won the National Book Award in 1981. His other books are Story (UP Press, 1997), and Sandali: Mga Pili at Bagong Tula (Ateneo de Manila University Press). He has been fellow at various literature and writing festivals, among them the Berlin International Literature Festival (2005) and the Mildura Writers Festival (2009).
Francis Macansantos is a poet, cultural worker, and literature teacher, and a frequent winner of Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He obtained his MA Creative Writing at Silliman University and has taught English and comparative literature at various times in Mindanao State University, Silliman, and UP Baguio. Francis was the local fellow for poetry at Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing in 1999. His epic, Womb of Water, Breasts of Earth, won the 2003 NCCA Writers Prize.
Peter Handley was born in March in a village in middle England at the latter end of the nineteen sixties. After a comprehensive education he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has worked in theatre in Europe, Scandinavia, Africa, and India as director, manager, or actor. He is also storyteller. Most latterly he has been working in Indian Cinema as an actor, script consultant, and media whore. His poetry and infrequent journalism has been published online and in various luminary literary magazines.
Emeniano Acain Somoza is looking forward to the launch of a poetry anthology from Kilmog Press in New Zealand, where "A Fistful of Moonbeams" is the title piece. His stories & poems have appeared in Haggard & Halloo, Moria Poetry Journal, Salt River Review, The Gloom Cupboard, Troubadour 21, Philippine Studies, ANI, Philippine Graphic, and Philippines Free Press. He works as a Communications Officer at a steel manufacturing multinational in the Middle East.
Francezca C. Kwe has won the Palanca Award for her fiction and the USTetika Prize of the University of Sto. Tomas where she obtained her journalism degree. Her works have been published in the Sunday Times, the Philippines Free Press, Story Philippines, and Philippine Speculative Fiction Anthology Vol. 1. She is currently taking her master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines. She is fond of large dogs and small people.
Toy Llaguno has been writing and drawing and painting copiously and feverishly since his college days at the Aquinas University and the Divine Word College in Legazpi City. Then he worked for a government information agency, and later for the local government of Daraga, Albay, his hometown, and went into self-imposed anonymity, before hieing off to Burbank, California and resurfacing on Facebook.
Rafael San Diego obtained his AB in English Literature at the Ateneo de Manila University and went on to write and read his poetry almost every other week for the Happy Mondays Poetry Night at the defunct (recently, lamentably) café section of Mag:Net Katipunan Gallery. He has accumulated enough, it is estimated, for a fulsome first book. He writes in his Facebook bio that is paid to be a geek (a product specialist) at a wireless company in Makati City.
Michael Caylo-Baradi works in California. His poetry and essays have appeared in Tertulia Magazine, Eclectica Magazine, elimae, Kartika Review, XCP:Streetnotes, Underground Voices, Otoliths, Prick of the Spindle, Mannequin Envy, Our Own Voice, Galatea Resurrects, and PopMatters. He occasionally contributes op-ed pieces to the Daily Californian and the Los Angeles Daily News.
Luisa A. Igloria is the author of Juan Luna’s Revolver (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009), which received the Ernest Sandeen Prize; Trill & Mordent (WordTech Editions, 2005), and eight other books. She is currently directs the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. When she isn’t writing, reading, or teaching, she cooks with her family or hand-binds books. For more of her work, visit www.luisaigloria.com
Alfred A. Yuson is the Philippines’ foremost version of the writer’s writer, or the poet’s poet. Also known as Krip, he has authored 19 books, including novels, poetry collections, short fiction, essays, and children's stories, apart from having edited various other titles, and maintaining a weekly arts and culture column at the Philippine Star. He has won several literary distinctions, including the SEA Write Award from the Thai royalty, the Palanca Hall of Fame, Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (Stalwart of Art and Culture) award from the City of Manila, and a Rockefeller Foundation grant for a residency at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy.
Gémino H. Abad is an eminent poet, critic, and friend of poets and writers of various colors. He earned his B.A. English from the University of the Philippines, his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Chicago, and has lectured internationally on various grants. He served the University of the Philippines in various capacities: as Secretary of the University, Secretary of the Board of Regents, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing. Apart from his poetry, Dr. Abad has anthologized the most comprehensive collections of Filipino poetry and prose written in English from the 1900s to the present.
Melissa Nolledo, or Mimi, our featured artist, is a photographer and digital artist based in Eugene, Oregon. Her work has graced numerous magazines and book covers and has been featured in several exhibitions on both the east and west coasts of the United States. She is the daughter of Blanca and the late great Filipino writer, Wilfrido D. Nolledo. Mimi is very active in Filipino cultural organizations is the U.S.
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