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 20 books. She co-founded PAWWA or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists; and also founded Philippine American Literary House. Brainard's works include the World War II novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, and Woman With Horns and Other Stories. She edited several anthologies including Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and two volumes of Growing Up Filipino I and II, 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.
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 2014.
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".
Gregorio C. Brillantes, a Palanca Award Hall of Famer and a multi-awarded fiction writer, is one of the Philippines' most popular writers in English.
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.
Amado Angelo Rodriguez Lacuesta is a Filipino writer, and winner of several awards for his short stories, including the Philippine Graphic Award, the Palanca Memorial Award and the NVM Gonzalez Awards.
Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta was a Filipina poet, editor, author, and teacher. One of the country's most respected writers, Dimalanta published several books of poetry, criticism, drama, and prose and edited various literary anthologies. In 1999, she received Southeast Asia's highest literary honor, the S.E.A. Write Award.
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.
Ricardo "Ricky" M. De Ungria is a Filipino poet.
Timothy James "TJ" M. 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.
