William Saroyan was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film The Human Comedy. When the studio rejected his original 240-page treatment, he turned it into a novel, The Human Comedy.
Imelda Romuáldez Marcos is a Filipino politician and convicted kleptocrat who was First Lady of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, wielding significant political power after her husband Ferdinand Marcos placed the country under martial law in September 1972. She is the mother of current president Bongbong Marcos.
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga is a Filipino singer and actress. Primarily known for her work in musical theatre, she has won a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards. She was conferred with the Order of Lakandula in 2009, and was honored as a Disney Legend in 2011.
Apolinario Mabini y Maranan was a Filipino revolutionary leader, educator, lawyer, and statesman who served first as a legal and constitutional adviser to the Revolutionary Government, and then as the first Prime Minister of the Philippines upon the establishment of the First Philippine Republic. He is regarded as the "utak ng himagsikan" or "brain of the revolution" and is also considered as a national hero in the Philippines. Mabini's work and thoughts on the government shaped the Philippines' fight for independence over the next century.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), or simply the Inquirer, is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded broadsheet in the Philippines and the multimedia group, called The Inquirer Group, reaches 54 million people across several platforms.
Francisco Sionil José was a Filipino writer who was one of the most widely read in the English language. A National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, which was bestowed upon him in 2001, José's novels and short stories depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society. His works—written in English—have been translated into 28 languages, including Korean, Indonesian, Czech, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Dutch. He was often considered the leading Filipino candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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."
Nora Cabaltera Villamayor, known professionally as Nora Aunor, is a Filipino actress, recording artist, and film producer. Aunor has also appeared in several stage plays, television shows and concerts. She is known as Philippine cinema's "Superstar" and was conferred as a National Artist of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022. The Hollywood Reporter called her "The Grand Dame of Philippine Cinema" for her performances in the movies Taklub (Trap) and Hustisya (Justice), and for her contributions to the Philippine film industry.
Maria Angelita Ressa is a Filipino and American journalist. She is the co-founder and CEO of Rappler. She previously spent nearly two decades working as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN. She will become Professor of Professional Practice in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University on July 1, 2024, and will be a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia's new Institute of Global Politics beginning in the fall of 2023.
Gina Pareño is a Filipino actress. She is referred to as the "Queen of Philippine Melodrama", being best known for her award-winning portrayals in films like Kubrador, Serbis and Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo.
Ambeth R. Ocampo is a Filipino public historian, academic, cultural administrator, journalist, author, and independent curator. He is best known for his definitive writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal and on topics on Philippine history and Philippine art through Looking Back, his bi-weekly editorial page column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Eugenia "Eggie" Apostol is a Filipino publisher who played pivotal roles in the peaceful overthrow of two Philippine presidents: Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001. She was awarded the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature & Creative Communication Arts.
Ali Mall is a shopping mall at the Araneta City in Cubao, Quezon City beside SM Cubao, and is owned by The Araneta City Inc., a subsidiary of the Araneta Group. Known as the first major shopping mall with integrated shopping in the Philippines, the mall was named in honor of boxer Muhammad Ali, and was built in 1976, making it one of the oldest malls in the country.
Miguel Syjuco is a Filipino writer from Manila and the grand prize winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his first novel Ilustrado.
Evangeline Rose Gil Eigenmann, known professionally as Cherie Gil, was a Filipino actress. With a career spanning nearly 50 years, she was dubbed the "La Primera Contravida" for her acting prowess which landed her numerous antagonistic roles on film, television, and even on stage.
Megan Abbott is an American author of crime fiction and of non-fiction analyses of hardboiled crime fiction. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing from a female perspective. She is also an American writer and producer of television.
Mario Eric Gamalinda is a poet, fiction writer, playwright, and experimental filmmaker.
Mitchell S. Jackson is an American writer. He is the author of the 2013 novel The Residue Years, as well as Oversoul (2012), an ebook collection of essays and short stories. Jackson is a Whiting Award recipient and a former winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. In 2021, while an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Chicago, he won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing for his profile of Ahmaud Arbery for Runner's World. As of 2021, Jackson is the John O. Whiteman Dean's Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University.
Jasmin Darznik is the New York Times bestselling author of three books, The Bohemians, Song of a Captive Bird, a novel inspired by the life of Forugh Farrokhzad, Iran's notorious woman poet, and The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life, which became a New York Times bestseller. A New York Times Book Review "Editors' Choice" and a Los Angeles Times bestseller, Song of a Captive Bird was praised by The New York Times as a "complex and beautiful rendering of [a] vanished country and its scattered people; a reminder of the power and purpose of art; and an ode to female creativity under a patriarchy that repeatedly tries to snuff it out." The Bohemians was selected by Oprah Daily as one of the best historical novels of 2021. Darznik's books have been published in seventeen countries.
