Poetry for Freedom, Justice, and Peace

SEAWRITE 2010 laureate (Southeast Asia Writer, Philippines) and National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Ani ng Dangal 2011 awardee, Marjorie Evasco has published several books, the latest of which is her omnibus book of poems, It Is Time To Come Home: New & Collected Poems (co-published by DLSU PH & Milflores Publishing, Inc., 2023), and Vital Signs: Philippine Short Stories on Healing, which she co-edited with Dr. Ronnie Baticulon (Milflores Publishing, Inc., 2025). Six of her books have won National Book Awards for poetry, oral history, biography, and art, and two have won the Gintong Aklat (Golden Book) award for poetry in English from the Book Development Association of the Philippines (BDAP). She received the UMPIL (Union of Filipino Writers) Gawad Alagad Balagtas in 2004, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (City of Manila) in 2005, the Outstanding Silliman University alumna for creative writing in 2008, and the 2011 Carlos P. Garcia award for literature from Bohol, her home- island. She is a University Fellow and Professor Emeritus (Literature) of De La Salle University and is currently its Writer-in-Residence. She sits in the teaching panel of the IYAS La Salle National Writers Workshop in the University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City, and in the Silliman University National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City. She also directs the DLSU National Writers Creative Nonfiction Workshop for Medical Doctors and Healthcare Professionals. She advocates for writing and speaking in Binísayá or Cebuano-Visayan, the Philippine language of the communities she works with in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Maria Rilkë Arguelles is a Creative Writing graduate from the Philippine High School for the Arts pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Art Studies at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. In 2022, she published her first collection of poems titled Pasalubong, a finalist in the 41st National Book Awards for Best Book of Poetry in Filipino. Vidas, her second collection, was published earlier this year as a final project before she graduated from Makiling.