Authors & Books

Frances Ong holds a master’s degree in Children’s and Adolescent Literature from the University of Surrey-Roehampton in London, United Kingdom. She is the Managing Editor at Tahanan Books for Young Readers, where she has overseen the production and publication of dozens of children’s books. Among the titles she has shepherded through all phases of production are Ay Naku!, Tagu-Taguan, Mang Andoy’s Signs, and the Halo-Halo Histories series—all recipients of the (Philippine) National Children’s Book Award. Fran is also the sectoral representative for publishers of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People.

Marga Ortigas is a veteran international journalist and bestselling author from Manila. After decades of reporting from the frontlines of conflict and climate change for CNN and Al Jazeera, she stepped away from the camera and focused on the page, with her first four books published by Penguin Random House Southeast Asia. She was a British Council Chevening Scholar and was awarded by the International Committee of the Red Cross for Humanitarian Reporting on the Philippines. A storyteller at heart, Marga continues to write—both nonfiction and fiction—with the urgency of a journalist and the intimacy of a poet.

Ned Parfan is the author of three collections of poetry: The Murmur Asylum, Tilt Me and I Bend, and Beloved Antimatter, all published by the University of the Philippines Press. The Vanished, his translation of Chuckberry J. Pascual’s Ang Nawawala published by 19th Avenida Publishing House, was a finalist for Best Translated Book at the National Book Awards in 2024. An assistant professor at the University of Santo Tomas, he currently serves as director of the UST Publishing House and is a member of the board of trustees of the Book Development Association of the Philippines.

Beth Parrocha is a Children’s Picture Book Illustrator with a Bachelor’s Degree in fine Arts, major in Visual Communication, University of the Philippines, QC.

Founding member of Ang INK – Ang illustrador ng Kabataan, the Philippines’ first and only organization of artists dedicated to Children’s illustration.

She has illustrated more than a hundred picture books and is in the process of doing more.

A number of her works has been translated into several languages and has been given national and international awards. In the last five years her works has been recognized, awarded and has been engaged in the following:

• 2021 International Indie Children’s Book Cover Award in the USA for the Pencil Who Would Not Write, published by ABC Educational Development Center
• 7th National Children’s Book Awards Best Reads, 2001-2021 for “BULUL”, together with Mary Ann Ordinario, published by ABC Educational Center
• 7th National Children’s Book Awards Best Reads 2000-2001 for “Ako ay may Kiki”, together with Glenda Oris, published by Lampara Books.
• AFCC Singapore BIGG Curator, 2023
• Key Visual Artist Philippine Book Fair, 2024
• Key Visual Artist for AFCC Singapore, 2024
• 2024 Winner, CMMA Catholic Mass Media Awards for “titser Nanay” with Genaro Gojo Cruz, published by Lampara Books

Chuckberry J. Pascual is a novelist, short story writer, and translator. He is the author of the novels Mars, Watch Out for Zombies!, Mars, Watch Out for more Zombies!, and The Vanishing Village and the short story collections including A Country of Corpses and The Vanished. He has also authored books on ethnography, literary criticism, and literary history such as Entering the Scene: The Movie Theater in Philippine Literature and a Study of Selected Movie Theaters in Recto, What is Most Important, and The Outsider in Literature. He translated into Filipino four short story collections by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo and Miguel Syjuco’s Man Asian winning novel, Ilustrado. He also co-authored a collection of one-act plays, and co-edited two anthologies of queer works. Most of his works have been finalists and winners at the National Book Awards, Gintong Aklat Awards, and National Children’s Book Awards in the following categories: Best Book of Short Fiction, Best Translated Work, Best Anthology, Best Creative Nonfiction, and Kid’s Choice.

Ralph Kristoffer Porio, or Kris, is a director and foreign rights manager for Komiket, a comics and graphic novel publisher from the Philippines that also runs a non-profit organization advocating for Filipino comics. Highly passionate about furthering Filipino comics and supporting Filipino comics creators through efforts like expanding comics readership, aside from his work at the non-profit organization, he has represented Philippine comics titles at international book fairs and rights markets like the Angoulême International Comics Festival and previous Frankfurt Book Fairs.

Kris has also been the technical director for the Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF) since 2023. Under Komiket, last July 2024 at the PICOF Comics Rights Market, 14 Filipino comics publishers were trained in rights selling, and held the first comics-specific rights market in Asia, selling over 12 Filipino titles to date (negotiations still on-going) in eight countries.

Ige Ramos is a book designer, food writer, visual artist, cultural worker, and food scholar. He is the managing director of the Ugnayan Center for Filipino Gastronomy, which he describes as a “laboratory for the accumulation of practical knowledge.” There, he publishes, conducts independent research, and holds workshops on heirloom cuisine, edible design, food studies, and comparative gastronomy. His book, Dila at Bandila: Ang Paghahanap sa Pambansang Panlasa ng Filipinas, which won the 39th National Book Award for best food book, investigates how geography, technology, ingredients, and demographic shifts influence the taste and flavor of Filipino cuisine.

Danton Remoto has published the following books with Penguin Random House Southeast Asia: Riverrun, A Novel; The Heart of Summer: Stories and Tales; and Boys’ Love, A Novel. He also translated three classic Tagalog novels into English: Banaag at Sikat by Lope K. Santos into Radiance and Sunrise; Mga Ibong Mandaragit by National Artist Amado V. Hernandez into The Preying Birds; and Luha ng Buwaya by Hernandez into Crocodile’s Tears.

He has worked as a radio host, TV host and Head of Research at TV5; Head of Communications at the United Nations Development Programme; Dean of Journalism and President at The Manila Times College; Head of School – English at the University of Nottingham Malaysia; and Editorial Director of the Office of Research and Publications at Ateneo de Manila University.

He took his AB and MA in Literature at Ateneo de Manila University, his MFA in Creative Writing at Miami University, his MA in Communication at Rutgers University, his MPhil in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland, and his PhD in English Studies at the University of the Philippines.

He was an Associate Professor of English and Communication at Ateneo de Manila University, a Professor of Journalism at The Manila Times College, and a Professor of Design Communication at Southwestern University Phinma in Cebu City.

At present, he is the Editor of the Queer imprint at Vibal Foundation and a front-page columnist of The Manila Times, where he also writes special reports on crime. He also works as a communications consultant for several private and government corporations.

2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and CEO, Rappler, Philippines
Professor, Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs

Maria Ressa co-founded Rappler, the top digital only news site that is leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler’s CEO, Maria has endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government, forced to post bail ten times to stay free. Rappler’s battle for truth and democracy is the subject of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary, A Thousand Cuts.

In October 2021, Maria was one of two journalists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

For her courage and work on disinformation and ‘fake news,’ Maria was named one of Time Magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year, was among its 100 Most Influential People of 2019, and has also been named one of Time’s Most Influential Women of the Century. She was also part of the BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019 and Prospect magazine’s world’s top 50 thinkers. In 2020, she received the Journalist of the Year award, the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award, the Most Resilient Journalist Award, the Tucholsky Prize, the Truth to Power Award, and the Four Freedoms Award. In 2021, UNESCO awarded her the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

Among many awards for her principled stance, she received the prestigious Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Knight International Journalism Award from the International Center for Journalists, the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University, the Columbia Journalism Award, the Free Media Pioneer Award from the International Press Institute, and the Sergei Magnitsky Award for Investigative Journalism.

Before co-founding Rappler, Maria focused on investigating terrorism in Southeast Asia. She opened and ran CNN’s Manila Bureau for nearly a decade before moving to Indonesia and opening the network’s Jakarta bureau, which she ran from 1995 to 2005. That was when she returned to Manila as the senior vice president in charge of ABS-CBN’s multimedia news operations, managing about a thousand journalists for the largest news organization in the country.

Maria authored Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook. Her most recent book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator, was released in November 2022 and has been translated into 20 languages with more to come.

In 2022, she was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to the Leadership Panel of the Internet Governance Forum and serves as its Vice-Chair.

She is a Professor of Practice at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she leads projects within the Institute of Global Politics related to artificial intelligence and democracy.

Maria focuses critical attention on the breakdown of our global information ecosystem and how interconnected communities of action can hold the line to protect democratic values.

CJ Reynaldo is a deaf freelance artist who is passionate about creating comics and storybooks that foster empathy and understanding toward the deaf community. Through his art, he communicates, expresses, and captivates audiences in ways that go beyond words. A proud member of Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK), CJ earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Visual Communication from the University of the Philippines where he graduated cum laude. His thesis was recognized as Best Thesis in the Publishing Category. When he’s not illustrating, he enjoys crocheting, baking, and playing Mobile Legends.

Stanley Ruiz is an industrial designer and principal of Estudio Ruiz – a Manila-based design consultancy he founded after working in Bali and New York City. With an extensive background in craft design and production, his work explores the commonplace to bring about new meaning and interpretation to object archetypes.

His works have appeared at the Museum of Arts and Design and at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. He has exhibited at Salone Del Mobile in Milan, International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, Maison & Objet in Paris and Singapore, Ambiente in Frankfurt, Bangkok International Gift Fair, Philippine International Furniture Show, Manila FAME, Singapore Design Week, and Tokyo Gift Fair.

Stanley has been featured internationally in a number of books, magazines, and newspapers, and received several accolades including three Katha awards (Manila), Coup De Coeur prize at Maison & Objet (Paris), Talents selection at Ambiente (Frankfurt), Outstanding Asian Talent (Bangkok), Rising Asian Talent award at Maison & Objet (Singapore), and was hailed as an Avant Guardian by Surface magazine (New York).

Notable projects include lighting fixture design using renewable materials for Design Center Philippines, furniture design for Areté and the Ateneo Art Gallery, sculptural pieces for Conrad Hotel Manila, installation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit commissioned by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, collaboration with glass makers in the Czech Republic, and creative direction for the Philippine delegation at NY NOW – the biggest design show in the US.

In 2024, he was conferred the Gawad Yamang Isip for Industrial Design by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines for his contributions in the field of design.

Analyn Salvador-Amores is Professor of Anthropology and former Director of the Museo Kordilyera, the ethnographic museum of the University of the Philippines Baguio. Her research interests include anthropology of the body, non-Western aesthetics, material culture, endangered cultures, ethnographic museums, Indigenous Peoples and colonial photography in the Cordillera region in the Philippines. She studied anthropology at the University of the Philippines Diliman, her MPhil and DPhil in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford University through a Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program.

In addition to her award-winning book, Tapping Ink, Tattooing Identities: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Kalinga Society (University of the Philippines Press, 2013), she is the author of many scholarly articles published in various books and journals. 

Her recognitions include one of the Outstanding Filipinos (Teacher) by the Metrobank Foundation (2015), and Outstanding Young Scientist in the field of Anthropology by the National Academy of Science and Technology (2014). 

As a public service professor, she continues to engage Indigenous communities in her work, and promotes Indigenous knowledge in different platforms. She actively carries out anthropological fieldwork among the Indigenous communities in Northern Luzon, and has published extensively on this subject. Recently, she is involved in the research on Northern Luzon Philippine collections in the archives and museums in the US and Europe, reconnecting historical documents, archival photographs, and material culture to communities of origin in Northern Luzon through digital repatriation and rematriation. The culmination of this collaborative work with German museums is the book, Hunting for Artifacts: 19th Century German Travelers in the Luzon Cordillera (2025) edited by Professor Emeritus Delfin Tolentino, Jr.  and published by the Cordillera Studies Center, University of the Philippines Baguio.

 

June Sandoval is the publisher of Summit Books. During her time leading the brand, Summit Books has earned multiple award-winning successes, including the Gintong Aklat Award in the Graphic Literature category for Salamangka 2 and the 8th National Children’s Book Awards, Kid’s Choice for Alinam 2.

Her career path wasn’t exactly linear. A licensed nurse, June started out balancing hospital work at night while working as a market research coordinator by day. She eventually climbed the ranks to become Project Management Head at her previous company. But her love for books proved stronger, leading her to Summit Books. There, she worked her way up from an Associate to Head of the department.

June is passionate about making books accessible to all readers, believing that great stories should inspire, entertain, and open doors. She is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of publishing, embracing innovation, and bringing fresh voices to the forefront.

When she’s not immersed in publishing, she’s off traveling, exploring new cultures, and, naturally, hunting for her next great read.

National Artist for Music (2014)

Ramon Pagayon Santos, composer, conductor and musicologist, is currently the country’s foremost exponent of contemporary Filipino music. A prime figure in the second generation of Filipino composers in the modern idiom, Santos has contributed greatly to the quest for new directions in music, taking as basis non-Western traditions in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

He graduated in 1965 from the UP College of Music with a Teacher’s Diploma and a Bachelor of Music degree in both Composition and Conducting. Higher studies in the United States under a Fulbright Scholarship at Indiana University (for a Master’s degree, 1968) and at the State University of New York at Buffalo (for a Doctorate, 1972) exposed him to the world of contemporary and avant-garde musical idioms: the rigorous processes of serialism, electronic and contemporary music, indeterminacy, and new vocal and improvisational techniques. He received further training in New Music in Darmstadt, Germany and in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His initial interest in Mahler and Debussy while still a student at UP waned as his compositional style shifted to Neo Classicism and finally to a distinct merging of the varied influences that he had assimilated abroad.

His return to the Philippines marked a new path in his style. After immersing himself in indigenous Philippine and Asian (Javanese music and dance, Chinese nan kuan music), he became more interested in open-ended structures of time and space, function as a compositional concept, environmental works, non-conventional instruments, the dialectics of control and non-control, and the incorporation of natural forces in the execution of sound-creating tasks. All these would lead to the forging of a new alternative musical language founded on a profound understanding and a thriving and sensitive awareness of Asian music aesthetics and culture.

Simultaneous with this was a reverting back to more orthodox performance modes: chamber works and multimedia works for dance and theatre. Panaghoy (1984), for reader, voices, gongs and bass drum, on the poetry of Benigno Aquino, Jr. was a powerful musical discourse on the fallen leader’s assassination in 1983, which subsequently brought on the victorious People Power uprising in 1986.

An active musicologist, Santos’ interest in traditional music cultures was heretofore realized in 1976 by embarking on fieldwork to collect and document music from folk religious groups in Quezon. He has also done research and fieldwork among the Ibaloi of Northern Luzon. His ethnomusicological orientation has but richly enhanced his compositional outlook. Embedded in the works of this period are the people-specific concepts central to the ethnomusicological discipline, the translation of indigenous musical systems into modern musical discourse, and the marriage of Western and non-Western sound.

An intense and avid pedagogue, Santos, as Chair of the Department of Composition and Theory (and formerly, as Dean) of the College of Music, UP, has remained instrumental in espousing modern Philippine music rooted in old Asian practices and life concepts. With generation upon generation of students and teachers that have come under his wing, he continues to shape a legacy of modernity anchored on the values of traditional Asian music.

Source: National Commission for Culture and the Arts | ncca.gov.ph

Robin Sebolino is currently an instructor at the University of Asia and the Pacific. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Literature from De La Salle University-Manila and his master’s in Writing and Performing and Publishing at the University of Leeds in England. He is a novelist and a textbook co-author.

In his more than a decade of service in the field of education, he has taught students in debate and public speaking organizations who have won championships in local and international tournaments. As a fictionist, he has written short stories published in foreign magazines and anthologies, in which he developed narratives inspired by Southeast Asian mythology. He won several awards and recognitions through his writing endeavors, including several honorable mention placements in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contests and earning a Seal of Approval from the Catholic Writer’s Guild for his historical novel Vassals of the Valley.

He currently leads Plaza Books in fulfilling a project to publish and promote manuscripts that advocate traditional Philippine values. In reference to such values, the organization specifically refers to the country’s mestizo (mixed) heritage, in which Hispanic, Chinese, and Austronesian cultures have merged—and continue to merge—in shaping Philippine society. Plaza Books will primarily publish works in English, but the organization hopes to have them translated into Spanish, Chinese, and other Southeast Asian languages to further communicate the multicultural ideas it aims to celebrate.

Horacio “Howie” Severino has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, and has produced over 200 TV documentaries, at least a dozen of which have won domestic and international awards. He is in his 23rd year as a TV documentarist for I-Witness, one of the longest-running television shows in the Philippines. He is also a pioneering podcast host for GMA Integrated News. He anchored the morning news at GMA News TV for eight years. From 2009 to 2014, he was editor-in-chief of GMA News Online. In other stages of his career, he was a newspaper reporter and magazine editor. He is a co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. He retired in 2021 as a Vice President of GMA Network, responsible for the training of its journalists. His documentaries have covered many heritage-related themes, which has led him to become an advocate and teacher of Baybayin, the ancient Filipino script. He has produced five documentaries on Jose Rizal, which have been used widely in classrooms across the Philippines. Howie was born in Manila but spent a large part of his youth in the United States as a diplomat’s son, and graduated from Tufts University in the US with a degree in History, magna cum laude. He received his MA degree in Environmental Policy from Sussex University in the UK. His documentary on being an early Covid survivor, “Ako si Patient 2828,” won Best Documentary in the Philippines’ Gawad Tanglaw awards and became one of the most watched Philippine documentaries of all time. In 2023, he was given the prestigious Balagtas literary award for his writings by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (UMPIL).

Beverly “Bebang” Wico Siy is a distinguished Filipina author, translator, and copyright advocate with nearly two decades of experience in the publishing industry. Born in Quirino, Manila, she is the eldest of five daughters of Roberto Siy and Resurreccion Wico. Her multicultural upbringing, influenced by her Chinese-Filipino heritage, is a recurring theme in her writings. ​

Siy earned her Bachelor of Arts in Malikhaing Pagsulat sa Filipino, graduating cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She furthered her education with a master’s degree in Philippine Literature. Her academic background laid the foundation for her multifaceted career in writing, translation, and advocacy.

In 2011, Siy co-founded Isang Balangay Media Productions, also known as Balangay Books, an independent publishing house dedicated to promoting local literature to strengthen community identity and self-worth. Balangay Books has been instrumental in empowering grassroots literature and readership in the Philippines. Throughout her career, Siy has authored, translated, edited, and illustrated numerous works, with notable publications that include It’s a Mens World (2011), a collection of essays that won the Filipino Readers Choice Awards in 2012, and It’s Raining Mens (2014). She has also translated works such as Paper Towns by John Green into Filipino. In recognition of her contributions, Siy was honored as a Book Champion and Intellectual Property Ambassador by the National Book Development Board and the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines in 2015. She currently serves in the Intertextual Division of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, furthering her commitment to the development and promotion of Filipino literature. Siy’s works often explore themes of empowerment, independence, and the complexities of Filipino identity, resonating with readers both locally and internationally. Her dedication to preserving and enriching local literary heritage continues to inspire and influence the Philippine literary landscape.

Isa Songco is the co-founder of Kwentoon, a digital platform and publisher dedicated to promoting Filipino stories through comics and animation. Passionate about visual storytelling, together with Kwentoon co-founder Juan Songco, she has spearheaded key industry events such as the Philippine Kids Content Festival and the Manga Bootcamp, the country’s first intensive manga production training, in partnership with the Intellectual Property of the Philippines.

With a background in brand strategy, media, and creative direction, Isa has led social media campaigns, corporate branding initiatives, and community engagement programs. Isa holds a degree in Psychology from Ateneo de Manila University and has pursued further studies in Counseling Psychology at De La Salle University and Paralegal Training at the University of the Philippines. Her dedication to empowering young creators and expanding Filipino storytelling globally continues to drive her work at Kwentoon.

Ian is the author and illustrator of Salamangka, its Gintong Aklat Award-winning sequel Salamangka 2, and Makina—all published by Summit Books. He is also the artist and co-creator of Skyworld, once a best-selling graphic novel in the Philippines, as well as the critically acclaimed Sixty Six (also known internationally as Mang Tino), created in collaboration with writer Russell Molina. With over two decades of recognition as an award-winning creative in the Philippine advertising industry, Ian now fulfills a lifelong dream as a senior concept artist at LEGO.

Noelle Sy-Quia was born and baptized in 1946 in Malate Church, Manila. Now 79 years old and retired, she remains active in cultural and literary circles. Noelle is deeply rooted in Philippine history. She is the great-granddaughter of Maria Rizal, the sixth child of Francisco Mercado and Teodora Alonso, and elder sister of national hero José Rizal. Her maternal grandfather, Mauricio Rizal Cruz—Maria’s eldest—fathered Caridad Argüelles Cruz, who married Pedro Michels de Champourcin Sy-Quia. Noelle is their eldest daughter. She is also a first cousin of Gemma Cruz Araneta, through her maternal uncle Ismael Argüelles Cruz.