Heavily inspired by emotional geography, Norwegian slow TV, and Latin American magic realism, Alfred Marasigan (b. 1992) conducts serendipitous research that relates to his narrative as a Filipino queer person to orchestrate an ensemble of objects, places, actions, phenomena, and entities in a livestream format. Through his transmedial practice, he uses livestreaming as a medium to unsettle digital epistemologies, challenge modes of storytelling, navigate the politics of belonging, and apprehend the trappings of chance.
In 2019, he graduated with an MA in Contemporary Art from UiT Arctic University of Norway's Tromsø Academy of Art and is a Norwegian Council of the Arts Grantee for Newly Graduated Artists. In 2015, he became a First Round Winner (General Category) of Art Olympia: International Open Art Competition in Tokyo, Japan, and in 2016, he had his first solo show in the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). He is currently an instructor at Ateneo de Manila University and has been with the Fine Arts Department for five years.
His other artworks have also been exhibited, screened, and presented in Enclave Lab (UK), Tromsø Kunstforening (Tromsø, NO), Meinblau Projektraum (Berlin, DE), Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF) (Harstad, NO), Small Projects (Tromsø, NO), c3 Contemporary Art Space (Melbourne, AU), Galerie Métanoïa (Paris, FR), Poh Chang Academy (Bangkok, TH), Metropolitan Museum of Manila (Manila, PH); and included in publications like Fordham University’s CURA Magazine, SFMoMA’s Tumblr, and Ateneo’s Heights, among others.
Aurthur Mercader attended Ateneo de Naga for the Digital Illustration and 3D Animation for 2 years, then took his education to canada, eventually racking up a diploma for the 3D Animation and Visual Effects Program from Vancouver Film School.
Since 2013, Aurthur has been the Lead Production Artist and Creative Director for Puppeteer Studios, where he specializes in 3D Animation. Puppeteer Studios is a premiere Philippine 3D animation studio that creates some of the most cutting-edge character animation for feature films, TV series, commercials, video games and more. working with clients like; Disney, Technicolor, Polygon and many more.
Aurthur's work with Puppeteer Studios has received widespread recognition. Most notably, he and his team bagged the Manila Bulletin Entertainment Best Animation Award at the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival for the animated short film "Geo". They also won accolades for Grand Prize: Best Animated Short Film, Best in Category: Animated Short film, and Best in Technical Quality, and Best Professional Entry for "Geo" at the Animahenasyon 2015. Their most recent effort, "Unos", brought home the award for Best Animated Film at the 2017 Mindanao Film Festival and Best Technical Entry at Animahenasyon 2017.
Brent is an advertising art director by day and an illustrator by night. He is an active member of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK) and his works have been featured in local magazines such as Esquire Philippines, Preview, Mega, Adobo, and Team. He has also been included in Real Living Magazine's 2016 25 Creatives To Watch. He had his first solo show in Galerie Stephanie back in 2018 and currently working on his second one.
Karl Fredrick M. Castro (b. 1986) is an independent artist and designer currently based in Angono, Rizal, Philippines.
He was a Visual Arts major at the Philippine High School for the Arts, and has a degree in film and audiovisual communication from the Film Institute of the University of the Philippines. He also served as editor in chief of the university’s official student publication, the Philippine Collegian, in 2006. Beyond the university, he has further honed his sensibilities in film and photography through scriptwriting workshops under Filipino screenwriters Ricky Lee and Armando Lao, and a photography masterclass under Spanish artist-curator Nicolás Combarro.
Karl is the recipient of many awards for his design work, including several Philippine National Book Awards for Design for cultural and scholarly volumes made for the Ateneo de Manila University Press. In 2012, he was the only freelance designer to clinch an award in the agency-dominated Adobo Design Awards, winning Best Design in the Books category for Ricky Lee’s novel Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata.
His design and creative direction for ABS-CBN Publishing’s Vault Magazine was hailed as among Asia’s best, winning an Excellence Award for Best Use of Design, Layout & Presentation at the Asian Publishing Awards. He is also the poster designer for renowned independent films like Lav Diaz’s Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan, Antoinette Jadaone’s That Thing Called Tadhana, Jade Castro’s Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington, and the Philippine release of Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo, all of which have been seen in major film festivals around the globe.
In 2016, the Filipinas Heritage Library presented a 12-year retrospective of his book design work, Secret Lives of Books: Karl Castro, Book Designer, at the Ayala Museum. In 2014, he had his first solo exhibit, Two Things, at Silverlens in Manila. He is currently working on several bodies of work involving painting, photography, and weaving.
More at: http://karlcastro.com/about/
Kay Aranzanso is a graphic designer and visual artist based in Manila. Also known as darlingkink, she publishes works focusing on erotica and the female anatomy. She is also a head of the learning arm for And A Half Design Studio.
Her artworks can be found on various local and international publications, as well as products including fashion, retail, games, etc. Find her works at @darlingkink on Instagram.
Kenneth Camro is a Senior Concept Artist and Illustrator for the Film and Video Game Industry. He has worked for companies like Sony, Microsoft Games, Netflix, SyFy, Blur Vfx, MPC, and many more.
I graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Painting from University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines. For the past seven years, I have been teaching in Mapua Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor of the School of Multimedia and Visual Arts. I’m also a part-time faculty member in the Fine Arts Department of Ateneo de Manila University and CIIT Interweave Campus Quezon City.
While in college, I started doing freelance work as a graphic designer and illustrator. Over the years, my work has been published in various publications here in the Philippines as well as in Hong Kong and Australia. Two of my illustrations have received recognition from the Asian Publishing Awards in 2013 and the Philippine Graphic Design Awards in 2011. Also, I am resident artist of the Illustration Room, an agency for illustrators worldwide.
Mich Cervantes is an illustrator, musician and art educator who graduated from De La Salle College of St. Benilde's Animation program in 2017. Her work in both illustration and music has been featured in publications such as Young STAR, CNN Philippines Life, adobo magazine, Scout Magazine and more. Her playful, dreamlike style offers bright glimpses into a strange world very far from our own. She is currently part of iACADEMY Senior High School's Arts and Design faculty, where she teaches Graphic Illustration and Animation.
Patricia Ramos is a part-time teacher, a freelance illustrator, a member of Mga Apo and Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan, and tells stories using words and pictures. She is a graduate of the UP College of Fine Arts with a major in Visual Communication. Her published works include Talinghaga, a baybayin card game; children's book Ang Alamat ni Niña Gigantes, and self-published comics Sining Space.
Tokwa Penaflorida (b.1989) is an artist whose diverse work spans children’s book illustrations, conceptual art, and queer erotica. His questioning of space appears as a constant theme in much of his paintings entwined with his advocacy for representation. Mastering the use of acrylics, watercolor, and digital media, his expressionistic body of work echoes a somber opalescence evident by his gradation of pinks and soft, sinuous lines. He is a successfully published illustrator, having done work for 10 local children’s books as well as several fashion and editorial illustrations for foreign and local magazines and brands. He’s been featured and has shown his work in local and international galleries, magazines, newspapers, and TV and has been hailed as one of “Manila’s Top Illustrators” in 2012 at the age of 23. He’s been making a name since then, being constantly present in the top creative lists of several local magazines. He graduated with a major in Visual Communication from the UP College of Fine Arts.
Eliza Victoria is the author of several books including the Philippine National Book Award-winning Dwellers (2014), the novel Wounded Little Gods (2016), the graphic novel After Lambana (2016, a collaboration with Mervin Malonzo), and the science fiction novel-in-stories, Nightfall (2018). Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in several online and print publications, most recently in The Best Asian Speculative Fiction, The Apex Book of World SF Volume 5, Fireside Fiction, Future SF, Australian Multilingual Writing Project, Philament, and Honi Soit.
Christine V. Lao is an Assistant Professor of the Department of English and Comparative Literature, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines Diliman. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in creative writing at the same University. Her collection, Musical Chairs: Stories, was a finalist of the 19th Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. She attended the University of the Philippines National Writers’ Workshop as a fellow for poetry, and the Silliman National Writers’ Workshop as a fellow for fiction. Her poems have appeared in Likhaan and Kritika Kultura, and her stories, in the anthologies Maximum Volume: Best New Philippine Fiction 2014, Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology, and in three volumes of Philippine Speculative Fiction. Her stories have also been published in Anomaly, Expanded Horizons, Philippine Genre Stories, Philippine Graphic, and Philippines Free Press. Tin was a member of Heights (Filipino Staff) and its Editorial Board. She received the Dean's Award for poetry and the essay (now the LSAA) a very long time ago.
Conchitina Cruz is an associate professor of the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the director of the Research Dissemination Office in UP Diliman. She received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York (SUNY) Albany. Her books of poetry include Dark Hours, elsewhere held and lingered, and There is no emergency. She is one of the editors of the Research in Creative Writing book series published by Bloomsbury Academic. She also helps organize the small press/DIY expo BLTX (Better Living Through Xeroxography).
Edgar Calabia Samar is a multi-awarded Filipino poet and fictionist from San Pablo City, Philippines. His first novel, Walong Diwata ng Pagkahulog, received the 2005 NCCA Writer’s Prize, and its English translation as Eight Muses of the Fall was longlisted to the 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize. Three of his other novels, including Sa Kasunod ng 909, received the National Book Awards in 2013, 2015, and 2016. He also received the National Book Award for Best Book of Criticism for his Halos Isang Buhay: Ang Manananggal sa Pagsusulat ng Nobela in 2013. Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon, the first book in his YA series Janus Silang, also received the Philippine National Children’s Book Award for Best Read for Kids in 2016. He has also received prizes for his poetry, essay, and fiction from the Palanca Awards, the PBBY-Salanga Writer’s Prize, the Gawad Komisyon sa Tula, Gantimpalang Collantes, and others. In 2010, he was invited as writer-in-residence to the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa in the US; and in 2017, as guest author to the Sharjah International Book Fair in the UAE. He received his PhD in Creative Writing from the University of the Philippines in Diliman where he was awarded the Gawad Antonio Abad for Best Dissertation in 2011. He is an associate professor in Ateneo de Manila University and also currently a visiting professor in Osaka University. He has delivered lectures on language, literature, and creative writing all over the country from Batanes in the north to Zamboanga in the south. He had also given talks in other countries such as the USA, China, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
Gabriela Lee earned her MA in Literary Studies from the National University of Singapore (NUS), and currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, focusing on science fiction & fantasy and children’s literature. She has received the 2019 PBBY-Salanga Grand Prize for children’s literature, writing about her grandmother’s experiences as a child during the Second World War.
Her fiction has appeared internationally in publications such as LONTAR: The Southeast Asian Journal of Speculative Fiction, Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories, Heat: An Anthology of Southeast Asian Urban Writing, Kaleidoscope: Speculative Fiction for Young Adults, and The Dragon and the Stars. She has also been published in the Philippine Speculative Fiction anthologies, the Filipino Fiction for Young Adults series, and in Philippine literary journals such as Kritika Kultura and Likhaan Journal. Instructions on How to Disappear, published in 2016 by Visprint, Inc., is her first collection of short fiction. She has recently contributed a chapter on young adult speculative fiction in the Philippines in Asian Children’s Literature and Film in a Global Age: Local, National, and Transnational Trajectories, published by Palgrave Macmillan.
She is currently an assistant professor at the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UP Diliman.
Jose Y. Dalisay Jr., PhD has published more than 40 books of fiction and nonfiction. Dr. Dalisay is Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines, where he also chaired the English department and served as Director of the UP Institute of Creative Writing and Vice President for Public Affairs.
He has a BA (English, cum laude) from the University of the Philippines, an MFA (Creative Writing) from the University of Michigan and a PhD (English) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In 2007, his second novel, Soledad’s Sister, was shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong Kong; it has since been published in Italian, Spanish, and French editions. He has been a Hawthornden Castle, British Council, David TK Wong, Rockefeller, and Civitella Ranieri writing fellow, and was a Pacific Leadership Fellow at the University of California, San Diego in 2015. He writes a column for the Philippine Star, and blog on penmanila.ph.
His interests include vintage fountain pens, typewriters, antiquarian books, poker, and all things Apple.
Martin Villanueva is the author of the poetry collection Account and the essay collection A pig was once killed in our garage. He most recently co-edited (with Joshua Ip) 11 X 9: Collaborative Poetry from the Philippines and Singapore.
Martin teaches creative writing courses at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Si Rody Vera ay isang mandudula at screenwriter, mang-aawit at aktor sa entablado. Humigit kumulang mga 70 dula na ang nasulat niya. Mahigit 20 screenplay naman ang kanyang nasulat at ang ilan sa mga ito’y nagwagi sa ilang timpalak, tulad ng Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Dulang Ganap ang Haba at Dulang Pampelikula), na siyang nagbigay sa kanya ng karangalang Hall of Fame noong 2014. Ilan sa mga nagwaging akda niya ay: “Luna, Isang Romansang Aswang” , “Ismail at Isabel” , “Paalam, Sister Soledad” , “Death March,” “Lakambini”, at “Ang Aking Juan Luna.”
Marami sa kanyang dula ay mga adaptasyon ng mga nobela at ibang dulang banyaga tulad ng: “Masa”, “Ang mga Huwad” at “Balete” na pawang batay sa mga nobela ni F. Sionil Jose (Rosales saga), Ang “Arbol de Fuego” at “Tatlong Mariya” ay halaw naman sa mga dula ni Anton Chekhov.
Inakda rin ni Rody ang matagumpay na TV series na “Bayan Ko” ng GMA News TV, na siyang nagwagi ng Quill awards noong 2013.
Ilan pa sa mga dulang pampelikulang sinulat niya ay: “Senyor Paciano” (nagwagi ng National Centennial Literary Awards 1998, 2nd Prize), “Niño” (nagwagi ng Best Film 2011 sa Busan Internatinal Film Festival), “Requieme” (Best Screenplay, Cinemalaya 2012). Kasama rin siyang sumulat ng “Norte: Hangganan ng Kasaysayan” ni Lav Diaz (Best Screenplay, Urian 2014). noong 2016, ang matagumpay na “Die Beautiful” ni direktor Jun Lana. At noong 2018, ang “Signal Rock” ni direktor Chito Roño.
Si Rody ay ginawaran ng UMPIL ng Gawad Balagtas Award noong 2015. Sa taon ding iyon, iginawad din sa kanya ng Ateneo de Manila University ang Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi. Nitong 2019, ginawaran din siya ng Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino ng Gawad Dangal ni Balagtas sa kanyang pagiging Mandudula.
Siya ay co-founder ng Virgin Labfest, taunang festival ng mga bagong akda para sa tanghalan. Siya rin ang kasalukuyang pinuno ng Writer’s Bloc, Inc.
Vincenz Serrano finished his PhD at the University of Manchester (UK) and is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of English in Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines). His article on the baroque historiography of the Filipino novelist Nick Joaquin was published in UNITAS (2018). His poetry books are The Collapse of What Separates Us (2010) and When a map is folded cities come closer, when clothes are unpacked cities fall apart (2016). He is the editor-in-chief of Kritika Kultura.
