Readings in Romance and Poetry

Tara Frejas has been writing and self-publishing romance books since 2015, and now has a total of 16 books (including collaboration work) in her backlist. An active member of the #RomanceClass creative team, she has helped the community maintain their visibility on social media and has also organized in-person and online events with them.

From 2020 to 2022, she has written, directed, and produced a number of online events for the community, including #RCReadathon2020 and Kilig Cafe, which featured conversations about various topics related to romance writing and publishing in talk show format. She also directed a mini web series called Hello, Ever After, which explored the ways we found comfort, kilig, and hope in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, starring Filipino actors as characters from previously published #RomanceClass books.

In 2024, she became part of the translation team for Tepai Pascual’s Duty Ka Ba? (Vol. 1), published and distributed by 19th Avenida Publishing House. She also shared valuable knowledge about writing and developing romance work as a panelist for the 21st Ateneo National Writers Workshop in October 2024.

In the same year, Komiket’s romance fiction imprint Blush Books acquired Tara’s book Scandalized for its Philippine print edition, and as of this writing, she is working with BoldMP in Los Angeles for its screen adaptation.

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.

Merlie Alunan writes creative nonfiction and poetry in both English and Cebuano. Her poetry is collected under six titles, namely: Hearthstone, Sacred Tree (Anvil, 1993), Amina among the Angels (UP Press, 1997), Selected Poems (UP Press, 2004), Tales of the Spider Woman (UST Publishing House, 2010), Pagdakop sa Bulalakaw ug uban pang mga Balak (AdMU Press, 2013), Running with Ghosts (AdNU Press, 2017) and Tigom Collected Poems of Merlie M. Alunan (UP Press 2024). She was awarded the National Book Award in the 35th, 36th, 37th and 42nd NBDB-Manila Critics Circle for the following titles: Sa Atong Dila Introduction to Visayan Literature (UP Press 2015); Susumaton Oral Narratives of Leyte (AdMU Press 2016); Tinalunay Hinugpong nga Panurat ha Winaray (UP Press 2017); Running with Ghosts and other Poems (AdNU Press, 2017), and Hubad Ester Tapia (UP Press 2024). She taught literature at UP Tacloban College and retired as Professor Emeritus of the University of the Philippines in 2008. She worked for most of her life as a teacher of literature and creative writing. She is also known for her work in promoting writing and reading in the Visayan mother tongues.