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.
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is an author and editor of 22 books. She co-founded PAWWA or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists; and also founded PALH or Philippine American Literary House. Brainard's works include the World War II novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept; The Newspaper Widow; Magdalena; and Selected Short Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, which won the 40th Philippine National Book Award and Cirilo Bautista Prize. She edited several anthologies including Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and three volumes of Growing Up Filipino, young adult books used by educators.
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.
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. She was given the S.E. Write Award for Literature in 2020 by the Royal Family of Thailand.
Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. is a Filipino writer. He has won numerous awards and prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction and screenwriting, including 16 Palanca Awards.
Cirilo F. Bautista was a Filipino poet, critic and writer of nonfiction. A National Artist of the Philippines award was conferred on him in 1998.
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.
Lakambini A. Sitoy is a Filipino author, journalist and teacher. Her novel Sweet Haven was published in French translation by Albin Michel as Les filles de Sweethaven in October 2011, in the original English by the New York Review of Books in 2014, and by Anvil Publishing Inc. in 2015. She received the David T.K. Wong fellowship from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom, in 2003.
César Ruiz Aquino is a Filipino poet and novelist. He was born and raised in Zamboanga, Philippines. He was educated at Silliman University, at UP Diliman, at the Ateneo de Manila on Padre Faura, and at AE. His writing career began when Philippine Graphic published his story 'Noon and Summer' written in 1961. At age 19, he received an invitation to - and a virtual writing fellowship at - the first, 1962, Silliman National Writers Summer Workshop in Dumaguete that included as fellows Wilfrido D. Nolledo, Jose Lansang Jr. and Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez - as well as mentors Nick Joaquin, Franz Arcellana and Edilberto Tiempo and Edith Tiempo.
Kerima Polotan-Tuvera was a Filipino fiction writer, essayist, and journalist. Some of her stories were published under the pseudonym "Patricia S. Torres".
Luisa A. Igloria is a Filipina American poet and author of various award-winning collections, and is the most recent Poet Laureate of Virginia (2020-2022).
Lina Espina-Moore was a Cebuano writer. She was a recipient of the S.E.A. Write Award.
Maria Felisa H. Batacan is a Filipino journalist and a writer of crime and mystery fiction. Her work has been published in the Philippines and abroad under the name F.H. Batacan.
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.
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."
Mario Eric Gamalinda is a poet, fiction writer, playwright, and experimental filmmaker from the Philippines.
Ricardo "Ricky" M. De Ungria is a Filipino poet.
Timothy James "TJ" Martinez Dimacali, is a Filipino science fiction writer and a science journalist. He is the first Filipino and first Fulbright scholar to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Graduate Program in Science Writing. He is also a science education advocate.
Reine Arcache Melvin is a Filipina-American author whose works focus on the Philippines and the lives of Filipino both at home and abroad. Arcache Melvin's works include the short-story collection A Normal Life and Other Stories and novel The Betrayed.
