Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago (2001), RE: Recollections, Reviews, Reflections (2015)
Spouse
Midori Yamamura, Ph.D.
Luis H. Francia is a Filipino American poet, playwright, journalist, and nonfiction writer. His memoir, Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago, won both the 2002 PEN Open Book[1] and the 2002 Asian American Literary Awards.
Francia was born in Manila, Philippines. He graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with an AB in Humanities, cum laude[2] and moved to New York in the 1970s. As a budding poet in New York, he studied with José García Villa,[3] the National Artist of the Philippines for literature, at The New School and later at his private workshop in Greenwich Village. Francia wrote the introduction to the 2008 Penguin Classics edition of Villa’s poetry, Doveglion: Collected Poems.[4]
His poetry books include The Arctic Archipelago and other poems, The Beauty of Ghosts, Museum of Absences, and Tattered Boat. In 1978, he won first prize in the poetry competition of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for "15 Poems".[10] He has two essay collections, Memories of Overdevelopment: Reviews and Essays of Two Decades and RE: Recollections, Reviews, Reflections, which won the National Book Development Board and the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award for Best Collection of Essays in English in 2016.[11] He also completed A History of the Philippines: from Indios Bravos to Filipinos in 2010.[12]
Two of Francia’s plays have been staged: The Beauty of Ghosts at Topaz Arts in New York in 2007 and 2014[13] and The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz at Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco in 2012.[14]
He is the editor of Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English; co-editor with Eric Gamalinda of Flippin’: Filipinos on America, and with Angel Velasco Shaw of Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999. He is included in numerous anthologies, including The Library of America’sBecoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing.
The Beauty of Ghosts, Ateneo De Manila University Press, 2010 ISBN9715506089
Tattered Boat, University of the Philippines Press, 2014 ISBN9715427200
Poetry anthology inclusions (partial)
Alfrredo Navarro Salanga and Esther Pacheco, eds. Versus: Philippine Protest Poetry. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1986.
Gemino Abad and Alfred Yuson, eds. The Best of Caracoa. Manila: Philippine Literary Arts Council, 1991.
José García Villa, ed. The New Doveglion Book of Philippine Poetry. Manila: Anvil Publishing, 1993.
Nick Carbó, ed. Returning a Borrowed Tongue. Minneapolis: Coffeehouse Press, 1996. ISBN1566890438
Gemino Abad, ed. A Habit of Shores: Filipino Poetry and Verse from English, ’60s to the ’90s. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1999. ISBN9715422160
Rajini Srikanth and Esther Y. Iwanaga, eds. Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001. ISBN0813529662
Ramón C. Sunico, Alfred A. Yuson, Alvin Pang, and Aaron Lee, eds. Love Gathers All: The Philippines-Singapore Anthology of Love Poetry. Manila/Singapore: Anvil Publishing/Ethos Books, 2002. ISBN9810451008
Nick Carbó and Eileen Tabios, eds. Pinoy Poetics. San Francisco: Meritage Press, 2004. ISBN0970917937
Edwin Lozada, ed. Field of Mirrors: Anthology of Philippine-American Writers. San Francisco: Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. 2008. ISBN0976331632
Steve Fellner and Phil Young, eds. Love Rise Up: Poems of Social Justice, Protest & Hope. Hopkins, Minnesota: Benu Press, 2012. ISBN0984462961
Rajeev S. Patke, Isabela Banzon, Philip Holden, Lily Rose Tope, eds. An Anthology of English Writing from Southeast Asia. Singapore: National Library Board, 2014. ISBN9810877617
Gemino Abad and Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta, eds. The Achieve of, the Mastery: Filipino Poetry and Verse from English, Mid-'90s to 2016. 2 vols. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 2018. ISBN978971542871-2
Theater/performance
The Beauty of Ghosts. Poetry narratives performed by professional actors and poets. Topaz Arts, New York, 2007 world premiere and 2014 revival.[24]
The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz. World premiere of full-length play, Bindlestiff Theater, San Francisco, 2012.[25]
Black Henry. Dramatic reading of full-length play. New York: Diverse City Theater Company, 2007; Topaz Arts, 2014; Philippines: Cebu City, 2016.
“Fruity Text.” Poetry for performance, commissioned by choreographer Paz Tanjuatquio. Brooklyn: Long Island University, 1998; Manhattan: The Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, 1999.
Nonfiction
Memories of Overdevelopment: Reviews and Essays of Two Decades, Anvil Pub, 1998 ISBN9712707563
Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago, MUAE Publishing, 2001 ISBN1885030312
A History of the Philippines: from Indios Bravos to Filipinos, The Overlook Press, 2010 ISBN1590202856
RE: Recollections, Reviews, Reflections, University of the Philippines Press, 2015 ISBN9789715427821
Anthologies edited
Co-editor with Indran Amirthanayagam, Kimiko Hahn, and Peter Kwong, "New Asia Issue: Selected writings by Asian-American authors," The Portable Lower East Side, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1990
Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English, Rutgers University Press, 1993 ISBN0813519993
Co-editor with Eric Gamalinda, Flippin’: Filipinos on America, Asian American Writers' Workshop, 1996 ISBN1889876011
Co-editor with Angel Velasco Shaw, Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999, NYU Press, 2002 ISBN0814797903
↑Villanueva, Martin. "In Conversation with Author Luis Francia". arete.ateneo.edu. Archived from the original on 2025-04-26. Retrieved 2020-05-27. He graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University with an AB in Humanities in 1964...
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