PHILIPPINE CONTEMPORARY WRITERS/AUTHORS

(REGION VII - CENTRAL VISAYAS)

1. Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

- Cecilia Manguerra Brainard was grew up in Cebu City (1947). The death of her father when she was
nine prompted her to start writing, first in journals, then essays and fiction. She attended St. Theresa's
College and Maryknoll College in the Philippines; and she did graduate work at UCLA. She was a co-
founder of Philippine American Women Writers and Artists and also in Philippine American Literary
House. She is an award winning author and she edited nineteen books. Her works includes the World
War II novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, 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.

Periodicals including Town and Country, Zee Lifestyle Magazine, Focus Philippines, Philippine Graphic,
Amerasia Journal, and Bamboo Ridge, among others, publish writings by Cecilia Brainard. Making Waves
(1989), Songs of Ourselves (1994), On a Bed of Rice (1995), Pinay: Autobiographical Narratives by
Women Writers, 1926-1998), Asian American Literature (Glencoe McGraw-Hill 2001), Cherished (New
World Library, 2011), and other anthologies have included her stories. ‘’Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Works’’

When the Rainbow Goddess Wept.

Angelica's Daughters, a Dugtungan Novel (a collaborative novel co-authored by Brainard, Cuizon,

Evangelista, Montes, and Sarreal, Anvil, 2010)

"Gokkusagi Tanricasi Agladginda" (Turkish edition of "When the Rainbow Goddess Wept" Bilge Kultur
Sanat, translated by Fusun Talay, 2001)

Magdalena (novel, Plain View Press, 2002)

Vigan and other Stories (short story collection, Anvil, 2011)

When the Rainbow Goddess Wept (novel, Dutton, 1994), which first appeared as Song of Yvonne, (New
Day Publishers, 1991) (Plume paperback, 1995), (University of Michigan Press, 1999)

Woman with Horns and Other Stories (short story collection, New Day Publishers, 1988)

Magnificat: Mama Mary's Pilgrim Sites (Edited by Brainard, Anvil, 2012)

Philippine Woman in America (New Day Publishers, 1991)

- Antonio Martinez Abad was born May 10, 1894 at barili Cebu and died on April 10, 1970, He was a
poet, fictionist, playwright, and essayist who write in Spanish a master of a master of costumbrismo
(local color), in a personal form of anecdote known as instantánea or ráfaga. Abad was also the editor of
La Revolution, El Precursor, El Espectador, The Cebu Advertiser, and El Debate and in 1926, he became
the president of La Opinion. He is the father of poet and critic Gemino Abad. He is well known as the El
gran novelista de la literature Filipino hispana despuesa de Rizal. He became a professor at Far Eastern
University and the University of the Philippines, where he taught Spanish and co-founded the
Department of Spanish. His novels includes the La Oveja de Nathan that discussed in the following
article in Spanish by Professor Manuel Garcia Castellon from University of New Orleans. Some of his
other novels includes El Último Romántico (1929), La Oveja de Nathán (1929), Dagohoy (1939), El
Campeón (1939), and La Vida Secreta de Daniel Espeña (1960; one of the last Filipino novels written in
Spanish). He won the Premio Zobel for his El Último Romántico and La Oveja de Nathán (with Flaviano
Zaragoza), and Premio Concurso Literario de la Mancomunidad Filipina for novels Dagohoy and El
Campeón. He was also one of the recipients of the Commonwealth Literary Awards.

3. Martin Abellana

- Martine Abellana was born in 1904 and died in 1989 who hailed from the Visayan region. HE
contributed a lot in the Philippine literary industry. Martine Abellana was elected president of an
organization of Cebuano writers known as LUDABI. He served as LUDABI president from 1956 to 1958.
Among his novel works are Kinabuhi, Awit sa Gugma, Basuni sa Katingala, Tulisok sa Tanlag, Ang Kalayo
sa Sulad, and Kaulit sa Kalipay.

4. Consolacion R. Alaras

- Consolacion Alaras was born in Cebu City on September 1, 1941, wants to be remembered as the
proponent of restoring the ancestral role of language, literature, arts, history and spirituality as the
heart and soul of national development, transformation and unity. She completed her studies Ph.D at
UP Diliman and she received several grands like UP Fellowship, Ford Rockefeller, and RPUS Faculty
Development and European Union Study Visit in Franceand Germany for Intellectual Copyright. She
became a Professsor at UP Department of English and Comparative Literature. Has served as chair of the
DECL and NCAA Committee on Cultural Information and Special Events NCAA Representative to the
Pamitinan Protected Area Management Board of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources chairperson, Corruption Prevention Working Group in the Ombudsman Multisectoral
Anticorruption Council for United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) head, Academe
Sector of the Good Citizenship Council, and chairperson, Moral Recovery Officers Foundation, Inc. both
for two terms. She Publishes some books such as “Rizal and the Katipunan Pilgrimage for Sacred
Prophetic Politics in the Philippines for the World” (2001), “Pamitinan: Ang Pagbubukas ng Tipanan ng
Mahal na Ina” (1988), “Kuweba Pamitinan” (1996), and; “The Filipino Earth Charter Pamatalaan
Dambana ng Bayan” (2005).
5. Diosdado Alesna

- Diosdado Alesna was born on May 18, 1909 in Carcar, He studied in Carcar Institude for Grade school,
In Cebu Provincial High School for his Secondary or High School and he studied College in University of
Visayas. He became a teacher in public schools and serve for a civil position and he retired being
administrative officer of Cebu District Engineers office at year 1972 and started writing in year 1920. His
work ‘’Si Kristo sa Balabag’’, ‘’Ang Gahum sa Awit’’, and ‘’Kalimti ug Biyai’’ ang this works are award
winners for LUBADI. He was honored in 1966 as LUDABI’s Most Outstanding Poet for the last ten years.
Diosdado Alesna has many pen names some of this are Tancredo Rigor, Plordeliz Makaluluoy, Reynaldo
Lap. Buntia, Melendres La Roca, and Diody Mangloy.

6. Estrella Alfon

- Born in 1917, Estrella Alfon was a Cebu native. She is a renowned dramatist, journalist, and storyteller
who wrote almost entirely in English despite being Cebuana. She did not belong to the intelligentsia like
other writers of her era did. She went to college and majored in medicine; however, after receiving a
false tuberculosis diagnosis and being admitted to a sanitarium, she resigned from her pre-medical
studies and graduated from the University of the Philippines with an Associate of Arts degree. Despite
possessing just an A.A. she finally became hired as a creative writing professor at the University of the
Philippines, Manila. She was a U.P. member. She held the National Fellowship in Fiction position at
Writers Club in the U.P. Creative Writing Center in 1979. As a result, she joined the U. The position of
National Fellowship in Fiction post in the U. P. Writers Club. P. Center for Creative Writing. In 1935, a
graphic adaptation of her first story, Grey Confetti, was released.

Some of her achievements are:

· 1940: A collection of her early short stories, “Dear Esmeralda,” won Honorable Mention in the
Commonwealth Literary Award.

· 1961-1962: Four of her one-act plays won all the prizes in the Arena Theater Play Writing Contest:
“Losers Keepers” (first prize), “Strangers” (second prize), “Rice” (third prize), and “Beggar” (fourth prize).

· 1961-1962: Won top prize in the Palanca Contest for “With Patches of Many Hues.”

· 1974: Second place Palanca Award for her short story, "The White Dress".

· 1979: National Fellowship in Fiction post at the U.P. Creative WritingCenter.

Palanca Awards:

Forever Witches, One-act Play (Third place, 1960)

With Patches of Many Hues, One-act Play (First place, 1962)

Tubig, One-act Play (Second place, 1963)

The Knitting Straw, One-act Play, (Third place, 1968)

The White Dress, Short Story (Second place, 1974)