The Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, popularly known as the Palanca Awards, are a set of literary awards for Philippine writers. Usually referred to as the "Pulitzer Prize of the Philippines," it is the country's highest literary honor in terms of prestige. It was named after Carlos Palanca Sr., the Chinese Filipino businessman and philanthropist.
Philippine literature in English has its roots in the efforts of the United States, then engaged in a war with Filipino nationalist forces at the end of the 19th century. By 1901, public education was institutionalized in the Philippines, with English serving as the medium of instruction. That year, around 600 educators in the S.S. Thomas were tasked to replace the soldiers who had been serving as the first teachers. Outside the academe, the wide availability of reading materials, such as books and newspapers in English, helped Filipinos assimilate the language quickly. Today, 78.53% of the population can understand or speak English.
Temistokles Adlawan was a Cebuano poet and short story writer who often writes with irreverent humor usually associated with Cebuano folk. Some of his writings expresses a greater sensitivity to gender issues.
Bienvenido L. Lumbera was a Filipino poet, critic and dramatist. Lumbera is known for his nationalist writing and for his leading role in the Filipinization movement in Philippine literature in the 1960s, which resulted in his being one of the many writers and academics jailed during Ferdinand Marcos' Martial Law regime. He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communications in 1993, and was proclaimed a National Artist of the Philippines for literature in 2006. As an academic, he is recognized for his key role in elevating the field of study which would become known as Philippine Studies.
Rolando Santos Tinio was a Filipino poet, dramatist, director, actor, critic, essayist and educator.
Ian Rosales Casocot is a Filipino journalist and writer of speculative fiction, literary fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction from Dumaguete, Philippines. He is known for his prizewinning short stories "Old Movies," "The Hero of the Snore Tango," "Rosario and the Stories," "A Strange Map of Time," "The Sugilanon of Epefania's Heartbreak," and "Things You Don't Know." He maintained A Critical Survey of Philippine Literature, a website on Filipino writings and literary criticism.
Clem Arnold Lawrence Arre is a Filipino comic book writer, artist and self-taught animator best known for his graphic novels The Mythology Class (1999) and Ang Mundo ni Andong Agimat (2006). He was born in Metro Manila, Philippines.
Marjorie Evasco is a Filipina poet. She writes in two languages: English and Cebuano-Visayan and is a supporter of women's rights, especially of women writers. Marjorie Evasco is one of the earliest Filipina feminist poets. She is a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award.
Alfred A. Yuson, also known as Krip Yuson, is a Filipino author of novels, poetry and short stories.
Teo Antonio is a Filipino poet. He was born in Sampaloc, Manila. He was educated at the University of Santo Tomas where he studied Fine Arts. Antonio is the son of Emilio Mar Antonio, hari ng balagtasan during the 1950s.
Cebuano literature includes both the oral and written literary forms Cebuano of colonial, pre-colonial and post-colonial Philippines.
Hope Sabanpan-Yu is a short story writer/poet from Cebu City, Philippines. She earned her doctorate degree in Comparative Literature from the University of the Philippines Diliman and her Master of Arts in English from the University of Calgary (Canada).
Edgar Calabia Samar is a poet and novelist from San Pablo City, Philippines. He has received the Philippine National Book Awards for his novels and book of criticism, and the Palanca Awards for his poetry collections and short fiction. His novels Sa Kasunod ng 909, Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon and Si Janus Silang at ang Labanang Manananggal-Mambabarang all won the Philippine National Book Awards for Best Novel in a Philippine Language in 2012, 2015, and 2016, respectively. He has been awarded the PBBY-Salanga Writer's Prize, the NCCA Writer's Prize for the Novel, the Gantimpalang Collantes sa Sanaysay and the Gawad Surian sa Tula.
Ligaya G. Tiamson-Rubin, is a Filipino writer. A multiple Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature recipient, and currently a professor of the University of the Philippines Diliman. Today, she is teaching Filipino 25, Mga Ideya at Estilo under the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature at the College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines Diliman in Diliman, Quezon City.
Victor Dennis T. Nierva is a poet, teacher, journalist, theatre actor, translator, graphic and book designer, and a cultural advocate. He is from the Bikol region of the Philippines.
The Philippine National Book Awards, or simply the National Book Awards, is a Philippine literary award sponsored by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Manila Critics' Circle (MCC).
Merlie M. Alunan is a multi-awarded Filipina poet, teacher and mentor, and cultural worker in the Visayas.
Wilfredo O. Pascual Jr. is an internationally acclaimed essayist, winner of the Curt Johnson Prose Award for Nonfiction and a runner-up to the Steinberg Essay Prize. In 2016, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He grew up in the Philippines where his essays have won several national awards, including the Palanca's grand prize twice and the Philippine Free Press Literary Awards. He is also a board of trustees adviser and member of the Samahang Makasining, Inc. since 2005.
Ernesto Degumbis Lariosa, also known as Nyor Erning, was a Filipino Visayan writer, poet, and columnist from Cebu, Philippines and a three-time Palanca awardee in Cebuano short story. In 2003, he was recognized by the Cebu City government as the "Vanguard of Cebuano Literature".