Jose Dalisay Jr.

Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. (born January 15, 1954) is a Filipino writer. He has won numerous awards
and prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction and screenwriting, including 16 Palanca
Awards.
Early Life and education
Dalisay was born in Romblon in 1954. He completed his primary education at La Salle Green
Hills, Philippines in 1966 and his secondary education at the Philippine Science High School in
1970. He dropped out of college to work as a newspaper reporter. He also wrote scripts mostly
for Lino Brocka, the National Artist of the Philippines for Theater and Film. Dalisay returned to
school and earned his B.A. English (Imaginative Writing) degree, cum laude from the University
of the Philippines in 1984. He later received an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan in 1988
and a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1991 as
a Fulbrightscholar.
Literary Career
Dalisay has authored more than 30 books since 1984. Six of those books have garnered National
Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle. In 1998, Dalisay made it to the Cultural Center of
the Philippines (CCP) Centennial Honors List as one of the 100 most
accomplished Filipino artists of the past century. Among his numerous books are Oldtimer and
Other Stories (Asphodel, 1984; U.P. Press, 2003); Sarcophagus and Other Stories (U.P. Press,
1992); Killing Time in a Warm Place (Anvil, 1992); Madilim ang Gabi sa Laot at Iba Pang mga
Dula ng Ligaw na Pag-Ibig (U.P. Press, 1993); Penmanship and Other Stories (Cacho,
1995); The Island (Ayala Foundation, 1996); Pagsabog ng Liwanag/Aninag, Anino (U.P. Press,
1996); Mac Malicsi, TNT/Ang Butihing Babae ng Timog(U.P. Press, 1997); The Lavas: A
Filipino Family(Anvil, 1999); The Best of Barfly (Anvil, 1997); The Filipino Flag (Inquirer
Publications, 2004); Man Overboard (Milflores, 2005); Journeys with Light: The Vision of Jaime
Zobel (Ayala Foundation, 2005); Selected Stories (U.P. Press, 2005); and "The Knowing Is in the
Writing: Notes on the Practice of Fiction" (U.P. Press, 2006).
 Editor
Dalisay has also worked extensively as a professional editor. He served as Executive Editor of
the ten-volume Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People (Manila: Asia Publishing/Reader's
Digest Asia [1], 1998). His clients have included the Asian Development Bank,
the Ayala Foundation, SGV & Co., the National Economic and Development Authority, the
Office of the (Philippine) President, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
Philippine Airlines, and the Ramon MagsaysayAwards Foundation, among other
Achievements
Dalisay has won 16 Palanca Awards in five genres. For winning at least five First Prize awards,
he was elevated to the Palanca Hall of Fame in 2000. He has also garnered five Cultural Center
of the Philippines awards for playwriting; and FAMAS, URIAN, Star and Catholic Mass
Media awards and citations for his screenplays. He also chaired the 1992 ASEAN Writers
Conference/Workshop, in Penang, Malaysia. He was named one of The Ten Outstanding Young
Men (TOYM) of 1993 for his creative writing. In 2005, he received the Premio Cervara di
Roma in Italy for extensively promoting Philippine literature overseas. In 2007, his second
novel, Soledad's Sister, was shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong
Kong.
He has received Hawthornden Castle, British Council, David T.K. Wong, Rockefeller(Bellagio),
and Civitella Ranieri fellowships, and has held the Henry Lee Irwin Professorial Chair at
the Ateneo de Manila University; and the Jose Joya, Jorge Bocobo, and Elpidio
Quirino professorial chairs at U.P. Diliman. He has lectured on Philippine culture and politics at
the University of Michigan, University of Auckland, Australian National University, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia, St. Norbert College (Wisconsin, U.S.), University of East
Anglia, University of Rome, London School of Economics, and the University of California, San
Diego, where he was named Pacific Leadership Fellow in 2015..
After serving for three years as English and Comparative Literature Department Chair, Dalisay
assumed the post of Vice President for Public Affairs of the U.P. System from May 2003 to
February 2005; he returned to the post in February 2017. He is currently a Professor of English
and creative writing at the College of Arts and Letters, U.P. Diliman, where he also coordinated
the creative writing program. He was Director of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing from 2008
to 2017. Aside from his weekly Arts & Culture column for the Philippine Star, he wrote political
and social commentary for the newsmagazine Newsbreak and the San Francisco-based Filipinas
magazine.
In 2017, the One UP-Jose Yap Dalisay Jr. Professorial Chair in Creative Writing was endowed in
his honor by an anonymous donor at the University of the Philippines.

Notable Works

Novels
 Killing Time in a Warm Place, 1992
 Soledad's Sister, 2008
 "Soledad: Rocambolesco Romanzo Filippino" (Italian edition), 2009
  "In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines" (a combined US edition), 2011
 La Soeur de Soledad," (French edition), 2013
Plays
 Madilim ang Gabi sa Laot at Iba Pang Mga Dula ng Ligaw na Pag-Ibig, 1993
 Pagsabog ng Liwanag/Aninag, Anino, 1996
 Ang Butihing Babae ng Timog/Mac Malicsi, TNT, 1997
Screenplays

 More than twenty produced screenplays, including

 Tayong Dalawa, 1994

 Miguelito, 1995
 Saranggola, 1999
Nonfiction
 The Best of Barfly, 1997
 The Lavas: A Filipino Family, 1999
 Man Overboard, 2005
 "Power from the Deep: The Malampaya Story", 2005
 "Unleashing the Power of Steam: The PNOC-EDC Story", 2006
 "Portraits of a Tangled Relationship: The Philippines and the United States" (with Jose
Ma. Cariño et al.), 2008
 "Wash: Only a Bookkeeper", 2009
 "The Voices of the Mountain: The People of Mt. Apo Speak", 2009
 "Decade of Reform, Decade of Innovation: The GSIS Under PGM Winston Garcia,
2001–2010", 2010
 "Builder of Bridges: The Rudy Cuenca Story," 2010
 Other books
 (as editor) Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, 1998
 The Filipino Flag, 2004
 "Selected Stories," 2005
 Journeys with Light: The Vision of Jaime Zobel, 2005
 "The Knowing is in the Writing: Notes on the Practice of Fiction," The UP Press, 2006
 "Pinoy Septych and Other Poems," UST Publishing House, 2011
Honors and Awards
 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship
 David T.K. Wong Fellowship for Creative Writing, University of East Anglia
 Chamberlain Award
 Milwaukee Fiction Award
 American Poets Prize
 Fulbright- Hays Scholarship
 Hawthornden Castle Fellowship, Scotland
 British Council Fellow to Cambridge
 Word Festival (Australia)
 Asia 2000 (New Zealand)
 Centennial Honors for the Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines
 Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines
 Cultural Center of the Philippines Awards for Literature
 National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle
 FAMAS Award for Best Screenplay
 Catholic Mass Media Award for Best Screenplay
 URIAN citation for Best Screenplay
 Star Awards citation for Best Screenplay
 Palanca Awards for Literature
 Palanca Hall of Fame Winner
 Man Asian Literary Prize 2007 Shortlistee for Soledad's Sister
 7th Department of Tourism Kalakbay Award for Best Travel Writer
 Fellow, Standard Chartered International Literary Festival, Hong Kong
 Philippines Free Press Awards at the Wayback Machine (archived August 31, 2004)
 Philippine Graphic Awards
 U.P. President's Award for Outstanding Publications
 Writing fellow, 20th Dumaguete National Writers' Workshop (1981)
 Henry Lee Irwin Professorial Chair, Ateneo de Manila University
 Jose Joya, Jorge Bocobo, and Elpidio Quirino Professorial Chairs at the U.P. Diliman
 Rockefeller Fellowship in Bellagio, Italy
 Premio Cervara di Roma, Italy
 Has lectured at the University of Michigan, University of Auckland, Australian National
University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, St. Norbert College, University of East
Anglia, University of Rome, and the London School of Economics and the University of
California, San Diego