Edgardo B. Maranan

EDGARDO B. MARANAN, Filipino writer, was born in Bauan, Batangas and grew up in Baguio City, Philippines. He is a poet, essayist, fictionist, playwright, writer of children’s stories, and translator. He was the Philippine fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 1985, National Fellow for Poetry of the UP Creative Writing Center in 1988, participant in the International Writers Residence at Lavigny, Switzerland in 2006, and delegate/panelist at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, Indonesia in 2007. At the age of 16, while a senior at St. Louis College high school in Baguio, he topped a national essay competition and won the right to represent the Philippines at the 1963 New York Herald Tribune World Youth Forum.

Maranan has garnered a total of thirty prizes for his works in English and Filipino, in the Philippines’ most prestigious literary competition, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He was inducted into the Carlos Palanca Hall of Fame (for multiple-First Prize winners), in 2000. He has also won in other literary competitions such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines Annual Literary Contest, Amado V. Hernandez Playwriting Competition, Institute of National Language poetry competition, Philippines Free Press Literary Awards, Philippine Graphic Nick Joaquin Literary Prize, Filamore Tabios Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize, and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY)-Alfrredo Navarro Salanga Writers Prize, which he won three years in a row, from 1989 to 1991.

From 1993 to 2006, Ed worked as information officer of the Philippine Embassy in London, and edited "The Philippine Newsletter". While living and working in London, he wrote for various Filipino publications, contributing articles, news features, short stories and poems. He co-edited, and contributed to the book "Hinabing Gunita (Woven Memories: The Story of Filipinos in the UK)" published in London in May 2004 by the Centre for Filipinos, a UK charity. He also became active as an adviser of a writers group, UMPUK, composed of Filipinos who have been long-time residents in the United Kingdom but continue to propagate their national language, Filipino, while honing their literary skills in English. Ed’s haikus also appeared in The Guardian’s weekly online haiku competition, which featured terse, poetic reflections on themes of topical importance and relevance.

Before his stint in the Philippine diplomatic service, Ed taught graduate courses in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines Asian Center in Diliman, Quezon City between 1979 and 1991. He finished his bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service in 1967 at the state university, studied for his master’s degree in political science, at the same time that he taught undergraduate courses in political theory and international relations, also at the UP, from 1970 to 1972. During this time, he became involved with progressive groups such as PAKSA (Panulat para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan), a national organization of left-wing writers, and SAGUPA (Samahan ng mga Guro sa Pamantasan), an informal union of activist faculty members at the state university.

When martial law was declared in 1972, he worked with the underground movement until his arrest in 1976. He spent more than two years in political detention at Bicutan "Rehabilitation" Center, where he continued to be active in cultural work, writing prison plays and poetry. His prison play "Ang Panahon ni Cristy" was written in Bicutan and won the grand prize for full-length drama in the Palanca awards of 1978. After his release from prison, Maranan joined a group of poets and writers called GAT (Galian sa Arte at Tula), and became active in advocacy for Philippine indigenous people, becoming national vice-chairman of TABAK (Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa Katutubo). He also served as board member of the Philippine Peasant Institute (PPI)and AsiaVisions, an alternative media organization, for which he and the late Lito Tiongson produced "Fragments", a documentary film on the Philippine crisis under the Cory Aquino regime, with his poetry as the narrative medium.

In 1987, he was awarded a one-month research fellowship in China under an agreement between the Philippine Social Science Center and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 1992, he was given a fellowship by the British Council to attend courses in contemporary British poetry (Birkbeck College, University of London), and modern literary theory (Oxford University). In 1993, he was appointed by the Department of Foreign Affairs as information officer of the Philippine diplomatic mission in London.

Ed came back to the Philippines in December 2006. His short story "Luna’s Land" – about the oppression of Filipino peasants during the colonial period – won third prize in the 2006 Nick Joaquin literary competition of the Philippine Graphic magazine. In 2007, he won second place in the Filamore Tabios Sr. Memorial Prize for Poetry sponsored by Meritage Press in the United States, with his retrospective collection of works entitled "Star Maps & other poems". His current literary projects include "EJ", a full-length play about two popular heroes of the resistance movement against the Marcos dictatorship: the student leader Edgar Jopson and the reform-minded former governor of Antique and Cory Aquino campaigner Evelio Javier. The play was commissioned by the Cultural Center of the Philippines Tanghalang Pilipino, and will be performed at the CCP starting February 2008. Other ongoing literary projects are a series of works for children focusing on the theme of environmental awareness, and more poetry and fiction.

Bookmark Inc. of Manila has published some of his prize-winning children’s stories, together with their English versions written by the author himself: "Ang Batang Nanaginip na Siya'y Nakalilipad" and "The Girl Who Dreamt She Could Fly"; "Ang Awit ni Pulaw" and "The Song of Pulaw"; and "Si Sabel, si Sabiong Lumba-lumba, at ang Hiwaga sa Laot" and "The Jinx, the Dolphin, and the Deep-Sea Mystery". His latest collection of mostly prize-winning poems, "Passage: poems 1983-2006", also came out in 2007 under the Bookmark imprint. His other published works include "Kudaman: Isang Epikong Palawan na Inawit ni Usuy" (with Dr. Nicole Revel McDonald, published by Ateneo University Press), a translation into Filipino of a major Palawan epic, which won a National Book Award citation in 1992; "Alab: mga tula" and "Agon: poems" (University of the Philippines Press, 1982), and various short fiction, essays, children's stories, and translations appearing in journals, magazines, anthologies, as well as Philippine references and textbooks.

Back in his homeland after years of experiencing first hand the Filipino diaspora, he now makes a living as a freelance writer, and is an active member of the Baguio Writers Group. (Other literary bylines: Edgar B. Maranan, Ed Maranan, E.B. Maranan)

LITERARY PRIZES

Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature

1971"Maikling Kuwento", Special Prize: “Ipis sa Guhong Templo”;

1977"Poetry", Second Prize: “Foliage and Tiger Fire and Other Poems”; "Maikling Kuwento", Second Prize: “Isang Kuwento ng Paraisong Walang Katapusan”;

1978"Dulang Ganap ang Haba", First Prize: “Ang Panahon ni Cristy”;

1979"Poetry" Third Prize: “Black Holes: A Closer View”

1982"Poetry", Third Prize: “Pax Panda and Other Poems”; "Tula", Third Prize: “Balada sa Baklad, sa Darating na Liwanag”;

1984"Poetry", First Prize: “Voyage: Poems”; "Sanaysay", Third Prize: “Mga Tinig ng Pagtutol”;

1986"Maikling Kuwento", Third Prize: “Talahib”;

1987"Poetry", Second Prize: “Hinterland”; "Sanaysay", Second Prize: “Bulkan, Bundok, Baha”; "Tula", Second Prize: “Namulandayan at iba pang tula”;

1988"Essay", Third Prize: “Palawan: Tales of Poverty, Poetry and Time Travel”; "Poetry", Second Prize: “Star Maps and Other Poems”;

1989"Maikling Kuwentong Pambata", First Prize: “Pamana ng Bundok”;

1990"Maikling Kuwentong Pambata", Third Prize: “Si Kidlat, Si Kulog, Si Kilot”;

1991"Short Story for Children", Second Prize: “The Jinx, the Dolphin, and the Deep-Sea Mystery”Third Prize: “The Fifth Element”; "Maikling Kuwentong Pambata", Second Prize: “Ang Ambahan ni Ambo”;

1992"Short Story", Third Prize: “Cogon”; "Essay", First Prize: “Island and Hinterland”;

1998"Maikling Kuwento", Second Prize: "Anino Sa Buhangin”;

2000"Poetry", First Prize: "Tabon and Other Poems"; "Essay", Second Prize: "The Way She Was: Memories of Lola Posta's Hundred Years";

2001"Maikling Kuwento", First Prize: "Ang Apo ni Lola Soledad";

2002"Short Story", Third Prize: "Doomsday";

2005"Maikling Kuwentong Pambata", Second Prize: "Ang Batang Nanaginip Na Siya'y Nakalilipad";

2006"Essay", Second Prize: “Hometown Stories & footnotes to childhood’s end”; "Maikling Kuwento", Third Prize: “Buwan at Lupa”

Philippine Board on Books for Young People PBBY)-Salanga Writer's Prize

Grand Prize, 1989, "Ang Awit ni Pulaw"; Grand Prize, 1990, "Si Sibol at si Gunaw";

Grand Prize, 1991, "Si Sabel, si Sabiong Lumba-lumba, at ang Hiwaga sa Laot"