Philippine literature is literature associated with the Philippines from prehistory, through its colonial legacies, and on to the present.
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.
Ninotchka Rosca is a Filipina feminist, author, journalist, and human rights activist. best known for her 1988 novel State of War and for her activism, especially during the Martial Law dictatorship of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Rosca has been described as "one of the major players in the saga of Filipina American writers."
Temistokles Adlawan was a contemporary 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.
The Cuenco family is a well-known political family in Cebu, Philippines. Since the 19th century, the Cuenco name has been part the colorful history and lore of this island in Southern Philippines. Members of the Cuenco family have been involved in Philippine politics, literature, journalism, as well as the Catholic religion." - Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Filipino-American Writer.
Paz Márquez-Benítez was a Filipino short-story writer, educator and editor. Her career as a woman educator as well as her contributions as a writer are seen as an important step within the advancement of women in professional careers as well as in the development of Philippine literature.She was also a former beauty queen.
Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo is a Filipina fictionist, critic and pioneering writer of creative nonfiction. She is currently Professor Emeritus of English & Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman and Director of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies.
Resil Buagas Mojares is a Filipino historian and critic of Philippine literature best known as for his books on Philippine history. He is acclaimed by various writers and critics as the Visayan Titan of Letters, due to his immense contribution to Visayan literature. He was recognized in 2018 as a National Artist of the Philippines for Literature - a conferment which represents the Philippine state's highest recognition for artists.
Dean Francis Alfar, is a Filipino playwright, novelist and writer of speculative fiction. His plays have been performed in venues across the country, while his articles and fiction have been published both in his native Philippines and abroad, such as in Strange Horizons, Rabid Transit, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and the Exotic Gothic series.
Néstor Vicente Madali González was a Filipino novelist, short story writer, essayist and, poet. Conferred as the National Artist of the Philippines for Literature in 1997.
Epifanio San Juan Jr., also known as E. San Juan Jr., is a known Filipino American literary academic, Tagalog writer, Filipino poet, civic intellectual, activist, writer, essayist, video/film maker, editor, and poet whose works related to the Filipino Diaspora in English and Filipino writings have been translated into German, Russian, French, Italian, and Chinese. As an author of books on race and cultural studies, he was a "major influence on the academic world". He was the director of the Philippines Cultural Studies Center in Storrs, Connecticut in the United States. In 1999, San Juan received the Centennial Award for Achievement in Literature from the Cultural Center of the Philippines because of his contributions to Filipino and Filipino American Studies.
Cebuano literature includes both the oral and written literary forms Cebuano of colonial, pre-colonial and post-colonial Philippines.
Philippine American Women Writers and Artists also known as PAWWA was founded in 1991 by a group of seven Filipina writers in Southern California. It was the first such support group for Filipina women writers. Aside from supporting one another, the group wanted to help other Filipina writers and artists, as well as to provide community service. PAWWA encouraged the creation of PAWWA-North, headed by Ceres Alabado in the Bay Area, California.
Linda Ty Casper is a Filipino writer. She is a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award.
Lina Espina-Moore was a Cebuano writer. She was a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award.
Hilda Suico Montayre was a Filipino writer who often used the pseudonym Rosa Montes. She considered fellow Cebuana writer Maria Kabigon to be a major influence.
Filipino women writers have played important roles within Philippine literature, with Philippine women having created enduring works of fiction and non-fiction across the genres. Writing in English, Spanish, Filipino and other local languages and native dialects, female writers from the Philippine archipelago utilized literature, in contrast with the oral tradition of the past, as the living voices of their personal experiences, thoughts, consciousness, concepts of themselves, society, politics, Philippine and world history. They employed the "power of the pen" and the printed word in order to shatter the so-called "Great Grand Silence of the Centuries" of Filipino female members, participants, and contributors to the progress and development of the Philippine Republic, and consequently the rest of the world. Filipino women authors have "put pen to paper" to present, express, and describe their own image and culture to the world, as they see themselves.
Vince Gotera is an American poet and writer, best known as Editor of the North American Review. In 1996, Nick Carbó called him a "leading Filipino-American poet of this generation"; later, in 2004, Carbó described him as "one of the leading Asian American poets ... willing to take a stance against American imperialism."
Woman With Horns is a short story written by Filipino writer Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. The story was first published in Focus Philippines in 1984 and is part of the author's first short story collection, Woman With Horns and Other Stories. The US edition of Woman With Horns and Other Stories was published in 2020 by PALH/Philippine American Literary House. The title refers to a fictional character named Agustina Macaraig, an Ubecan widow, rumored to have horns. Brainard's character was inspired by fanciful folklore from Cebu, Philippines, where she grew up in and which inspired her to create the setting of many of her stories - Ubec, which is Cebu backwards.
Eleanor Rose Ty, FRSC, is a Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. She holds a PhD and MA in English from McMaster University, and a BA Hons from the University of Toronto.
