4 Award-Winning Must-Read Filipino Authors and Poets
Whether you’re just starting to take interest in reading books or looking for ways to finally catch up on your to-read list, reading the works of these four Filipino authors might just be the push that you needed. As these authors immerses its readers to the Filipino experience, their books will definitely tug unseen emotions and thoughts. It’s no wonder that they have received received global recognition for their work.
Allan Popa
Allan Popa at Saringsing Bikol Writers Workshop 2019 held in Catanduanes
Courtesy of Irvin Parco Sto. Tomas
If you’re into poetry, Allan Popa is one of the first names that come up if you’re asking any scholar in the Philippines. As of 2022, he has published more than ten collections of poetry including Morpo and Samsara, in which he received a National Book Award for Poetry in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Other national recognitions that Allan Popa has received are the Philippines Free Press Literary Award and the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award. Aside from national recognition, he has also earned an MFA degree in poetry at Washington University in Saint Louis. Not only that, but he also won the Norma Lowry Prize and the Academy of American Poets Graduate Prize during his stay in the university.
While the majority of his works are published in Tagalog, there are many translated editions and you can find many of them online.
“The poems...work like parables...(they) are mystical, mysterious, and mystifying, and so require to be read with deliberation and savored with fine discrimination,” says Bienvenido Lumbera, Editor of Sanghaya 2003: Philippine Arts and Culture Yearbook.
Lysley Tenorio
Courtesy of Jessica Christian via The Chronicle
Fiction writer, Lysley Tenorio has both published and received awards in the United States for writing stories about Filipinos and mostly, their experience in another country. His book titled Monstress (2012), which contains eight short stories, was named a book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle. His recognitions in the field of literature includes receiving a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Award, a Stegner fellowship, the Edmund White Award, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Aside from having his stories appear in The Atlantic and Zoetrope: All-Story, and Ploughshares, The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and the Ma-Yi Theater in New York City has also adapted his stories for stage.
Lysley Tenorio’s most recent book is The Son of Good Fortune (2020) and is beautiful reflection of how vibrant and empathetic his characters are. Voted a Best Book by Amazon in July of 2020, The Son of Good Fortune is a novel about a mother, Maxima, and her son, Excel, who are undocumented Filipino immigrants living in California. Both of them do their best to assimilate. make money and not get caught by the INS. But what they do not know about each other is the ultimate challenge: Maxima seduces men on the internet, eventually cajoling them to wire her money, while Excel flees to a hippie commune with his girlfriend and begins to wonder if he could make it his home.
Conchitina Cruz
Courtesy of Conchitina Cruz
Another poet, Conchitina Cruz, also known as Chingbee Cruz, has written multiple poetry collections, and has published her works in both Philippine and American journals. Her collection of prose poetry, Dark Hours (2005), where Chingbee Cruz navigates the city through the experiences of different characters, won the National Book Award in 2006. She also holds two Palanca Awards, an esteemed award giving body in the Philippines.
Although she is a Manila-based author, her audience expands in other corners of the world. She has earned her MFA degree at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and her PhD in English from State University of New York (SUNY) Albany. Other works of Conchitina Cruz includes elsewhere held and lingered (2008), There is no emergency (2015), and book of essays The Filipino Author as a Producer (2017) and Partial Views: On the Essay as a Genre in Philippine Literary Production (2021). Aside from writing, she currently also co-runs a small press, the Youth & Beauty Brigade.
Cruz’s work is known to be very lyrical and memoir-based stream of consciousness. Her poems illicit deep experience and response from fans of her work.
Gina Apostol
Courtesy of Margarita Corporan via ginaapostol.com
A US-based author, Gina Apostol, without fail, have always gotten a recognition for her published works. If you’re into reading stories of fiction based on the history of the Philippines, you might want to pick up one of her books. Her debut novel, Bibliolepsy (1997) has won the Juan Laya Prize for the Novel Category (Philippine National Book Award). This also holds true for her work, The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata (2009) has also won the same award. She follows these two works with Gun Dealers’ Daughter (2010) in which it won the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award, an award given to authors of color that has published in the United States. Her latest book, Insurrecto (2018), has garnered multiple recognitions such as Publisher Weekly’s one of the Ten Best Books of 2018, Editor’s Choice of the NYT, and being shortlisted for the Dayton Prize. Gina Apostol has also recently won the 2022 Rome Prize in Literature for her next novel.
Written by Maria Manio
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