There are many Filipinos who excel in writing poetry and other literary works.

As I
was researching for Filipino authors in Mindanao, there was an author who caught my
attention. I was intrigued by her purpose in writing literary works. She is Jhoanna Lynn B.
Cruz, a Palanca award-winning writer who currently resides in Davao City.

But first of all, who is Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz?

She teaches linguistics, literature, and creative writing in the Department of

Humanities of the University of the Philippines Mindanao. She completed her Master of
Arts in Language and Literature and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, both with high
distinction, at De La Salle University. She currently makes her home in Davao City with her
two children. Jhoanna Lynn Cruz is the President of Davao Writers Guild and the regional
coordinator for Southern Mindanao in the National Committee on Literary Arts.

When Cruz was still young, she said to herself that she must become a writer in the
future because she felt like she had something to say and that her experiences as a woman
needed to be articulated in a creative way in order to contribute to change in our
patriarchal society. It is amazing that she started writing just because she wanted to impart
her personal issues about gender and sexuality in a different way and it changed her life
when many people appreciated her works and in the end, writing continued to be her
passion.

Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz first book, Women Loving: Stories and a Play(anvil Publishing,
2010), is the principal single-writer compilation of lesbian-themed writing in the
Philippines. Her composing has won the Philippines’ renowned Carlos Palanca Memorial
Awards for Literature. Likewise, the exposition name, “Sapay Koma” composed by Jhoanna
Lynn B. Cruz (UPMin Prof., Humanities Dept., CHSS) was decreed victor of the Third Prize
in the Essay Category of the 58th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. The most
recent scholarly work she made was a sonnet named “Agua de Viuda” which was delivered
om the 26th of June, this year.

Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz plays out her new sonnet named “Agua De Viuda”.

As I read her article named “Sapay Koma”, I was really inspired the story. Her life
turned out to be hard and shocking in light of the fact that her significant other and the
social obstruction between them made a major separation in their relationship however
she remained solid which gives us an exercise that everything occurs for an explanation
regardless of how bleak the closure is.