PROJECT GRACE - U.P.
1st NATIONAL LGBTQ+
WRITERS WORKSHOP
Workshop Panelists
Romulo P. Baquiran
Romulo P. Baquiran, Jr. teaches literature and creative writing at the College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman, Quezon City. He has published several books of poems and essays–Mga Tula ng Paglusong (Poems of Entering the Water, 1992), Onyx (2003), and Kung Nanaisin (If You Like, 2009), Sagad sa Buto (Into the Marrow, 2011), and Hiwatig (Meaning, 2015). He is also a drama translator rendering into the Philippine national language the works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Kalidasa, and Eugene O’Neill. He also taught Tagalog language and Philippine Culture as a Visiting Professor at the Osaka University in 2014-2017. He is one of the editors of Tuttle Publishing Company’s Concise Tagalog-Englsh/English-Tagalog Dictionary (2017).
Ronald Baytan
Ronald Baytan is an associate professor in the Literature Department and the director of the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center at De La Salle University. He holds a Ph.D. in English Studies from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He teaches queer/gay/gender studies, creative writing, poetry, creative nonfiction, and Philippine literature. He is the author of The Queen Sings the Blues: Poems, 1992 -2002 (Anvil, 2007) and The Queen Lives Alone: Personal Essays (UP Press, 2012). He is the editor of Lit Matters: A Manual for Teaching Philippine Literature (Anvil, 2014).
Shane Carreon
Shane carreon is author of travelbook (UP Press, 2013) and Then, Beast (UP Press, 2017). Ze received an Academy of American Poets Prize, an honourable mention in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards, as well the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature and the Nick Joaquin Literary Award. Hr poems have been consecutively nominated for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Intro Journals Project. Hir poems and fiction appear in Little Things: An Anthology of Poetry (Ethos Books, Singapore), Veils, Halos and Shackles (Kasva Press, Israel), Typhoon Yolanda: A Storm of Filipino Poets (Meritage Press, St. Helena & San Francisco), Querida (Anvil, Philippines), Press: 100 Love Letters (UP Press, Philippines), Kritika Kultura, Tomás Anniversary Issue, Callisto: A Queer Fiction Journal and elsewhere. Currently on a Fulbright Fellowship, ze lives in Cebu and New York.
Eugene Evasco
Eugene Y. Evasco is a writer, editor, translator, and collector of children’s books. He currently teaches literature and creative writing with the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, UP College of Arts and Letters. Among his works are Mga Pilat sa Pilak: Mga Personal na Sanaysay (Wounds on Silver: Personal Essays, UST Publishing House), May Tiyanak sa Loob ng Aking Bag: Mga Tulang Pambata (There is a Tiyanak Inside My Bag: Poems for Children, Anvil), Ang Singsing-Pari sa Pisara (The Millipede on the Blackboard, Lampara), Ang Nag-iisa at Natatanging si Onyok (The One and Only Onyok, Lampara); and the Filipino translations of Charlotte’s Web (Lampara) by E.B. White and The Secret (Anvil) by Lin-Acacio Flores. In 2014, he won the UP Award for Special Publication in Filipino (Creative Writing Category). He is part of the Carlos Palanca Award for Literature Hall of Fame in 2009. He won the Grand Price twice for Philippine Board on Books for Young People; Poet of the Year 2000; National Children’s Book Award; and the National Book Award for Young Adult Literature. Currently, he is an Associate at the UP Institute of Creative Writing. In 2016, he became a Research Fellow for the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, where he researched on children’s books with LGBT themes.
J. Neil C. Garcia
J. Neil C. Garcia teaches creative writing and comparative literature at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he serves as Director of the university press and a Fellow for Poetry in the Institute of Creative Writing. He is the author of numerous poetry collections and works in literary and cultural criticism, including The Sorrows of Water (2000), Kaluluwa (2001), Performing the Self: Occasional Prose (2003), The Garden of Wordlessness (2005), Misterios and Other Poems (2005), and Postcolonialism and Filipino Poetics: Essays and Critiques (2003).
In 2009, Hong Kong University Press published its own international edition of his Philippine Gay Culture (1996). Between 1994 and 2014, he coedited the famous Ladlad series of Philippine gay writing. Two other important anthologies that he edited are Aura: the Gay Theme in Philippine Fiction in English, published in 2012, and Bright Sign, Bright Age: Critical Essays in Philippines Studies, published in 2017.
His poems, essays, and books have received a variety of recognitions and prizes, including the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, the Philippines Free Press Literary Prize, and the National Book Award. He regularly contributes film and theater reviews to GMA News Online. His most recent books are The Postcolonial Perverse: Critiques of Contemporary Philippine Culture, Homeless in Unhomeliness: Postcolonial Critiques of Philippine Literature, and Myth and Writing: Occasional Prose.
He is the director for the Philippines of Project GlobalGRACE: Global Gender and Cultures of Equality, a world-wide research and arts consortium sponsored by the Research Councils of the United Kingdom and Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently at work on “Likha,” his seventh poetry book.
NERISA DEL CARMEN GUEVARA
Nerisa del Carmen Guevara is an Associate Professor of the University of Sto. Tomas Department of Literature. She has exhibited her installations and performance pieces at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and other spaces.
She has received a Palanca Award for Poetry, a Silver Cup for Dance Solo in the April Spring Festival in Pyongyang, and a Catholic Mass Media Award. Guevara has an M.A. in English Studies from University of the Philippines, Diliman. She is currently taking a PhD in Creative Writing in the same university.
A featured Southeast Asian performance artist, documentation of her “Elegies” and “Infinite Gestures” are currently in the archives of The Live Art Digital Agency (LADA), London. She has done performance art pieces for the Philippine International Performance Art Festival, SIPA International Performance Art Festival, PERFORMATURA, and Grace Exhibition Space, New York.
John Iremil Teodoro
John Iremil Teodoro is from San Jose de Buenavista, Antique. He is Associate Professor and the Graduate Program Coordinator at the Literature Department in the College of Liberal Arts of De La Salle University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and a Doctor of Philosophy in Literature from DLSU. He is a multi-awarded writer in Kinaray-a, Filipino, Hiligaynon, and English. He is the author of more than 12 books and his collection of short essays Pagmumuni-muni at Pagtatalak ng Sirenang Nagpapanggap na Prinsesa won the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board. Teodoro is also a scholar of Hiligaynon Literature. He contributes reviews, travel pieces, and cultural reportage to AGUNG, The Daily Tribune, and Liwayway magazine. He is presently the Secretary General of Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL or the Writers Union of the Philippines.) On weekdays he lives in a condominium unit with a view of Manila Bay and on weekends he lives in Pasig City where he owns a small garden with bougainvilleas.
Alvin Yapan
Alvin Yapan is a multi-awarded storyteller in Filipino. Among his publications are Sangkatauhan Sangkahayupan (Humanity and the Animal Kingdom; 2017 National Book Award for Short Story). He is also a filmmaker, and among his films are Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa (The Dance of Two Left Feet, 2011), EDSA (2016), and Oro (Gold; 2016). He earned a doctoral degree in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines. He currently teaches with the Filipino Department of the Ateneo de Manila University.