1. Dean Francis Alfar is a Filipino playwright, novelist and writer of speculative fiction. His plays have been performed in venues across the country, while his articles and fiction have been published in venues both in his native Philippines and abroad, such as in Strange Horizons, Rabid Transit, The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, The Apex Book of World SF, and Exotic Gothic 2 and 3.
His literary awards include ten Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature — including the Grand Prize for Novel for Salamanca (Ateneo Press, 2006)— as well as the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awards for the graphic novels Siglo: Freedom and Siglo: Passion, the Philippines Free Press Literary Award, and the Gintong Aklat Award. He was a fellow at the 1992 Dumaguete National Writers Workshop as well as the 20th and 48th UP National Writers Workshop.
He is an advocate of the literature of the fantastic, managing the Philippine Speculative Fiction annuals, as well as a comic book creator and a blogger.
2. Rodello Santos was born in Manila, raised in the Bronx, and is currently lost in Yonkers.
His work fluctuates between dark and lighthearted fantasy with frequent visits throughout the speculative continuum. His stories have appeared online at The Town Drunk, Flash Fiction Online, and Dragons, Knights and Angels. He garnered an honorable mention in the 2008 Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (edited by Datlow, Link and Grant) for his story “In Earthen Vessels,” (from Philippine Speculative Fiction, Vol. 3.) He has also been published in the anthologies Cinema Spec, Cheer Up, Universe (forthcoming), and Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel (forthcoming). He is a proud member of the Liberty Hall writing forum.
3. Nikki Alfar learned to write at the age of two and never quite figured out how to stop. Now, over three decades later, she’s been a flight attendant, a bank manager, a magazine editor, an office administrator, a radio newscaster, and, currently, a marketing and corporate copywriter. Along the way, she’s somehow managed to earn two Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, one Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, a citation in the global Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, and recognition as a ‘Filipina writer of note’, according to the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings.
She’s currently putting the finishing touches on her first story collection, tentatively titled Now, Then & Elsewhen. Her fiction has been published internationally—in Fantasy, Bewildering Stories, and Our Own Voice—and locally, in various magazines as well as the anthologies A Time for Dragons, Night Monkeys, Sawi, and Tales of Fantasy & Enchantment. She’s a proud founding member of the LitCritters writing and literary discussion group, and co-edits the annual anthology series Philippine Speculative Fiction, published by multi-awarded novelist, short fictionist, playwright, and speculative fiction advocate Dean Francis Alfar.
Dean and Nikki have been really quite ridiculously happily married for well over a decade now. They have two daughters—Sage, who is an avid bibliophile and has already written several pieces of flash fiction; and Rowan, who thinks that Goonight, Moon is the most sparely elegant tour de force of texturing detail ever written. She actually said “Abagabooda,” but her parents are certain that’s what she meant.
4. Eliza Victoria works in an office for most of the day, and churns out stories and the occasional poem at night. Her fiction and poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in various publications based in the Philippines and abroad, including the Philippines Graphic, Philippines Free Press, Story Philippines, Very Short Stories for Harried Readers, Philippine Speculative Fiction IV, Expanded Horizons, Cantaraville, elimae, and The Houston Literary Review. This year, she received a Palanca Award for her poetry collection, “Reportage”. Her short story, “An Abduction by Mermaids” was a finalist at this year’s Philippines Free Press Literary Awards. She spends her time in Makati, Quezon City, and Bulacan. Visit her at http://sungazer.wordpress.com.
5. Crystal Koo was born and bred in the Philippines and is now an English lecturer at the College of International Education of Hong Kong Baptist University. Her work has been previously published in various international venues including The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, unsweetened Literary Journal, RUBRIC: Creative Writing Journal of the University of New South Wales, Short Stories at East of the Web, Salu-Salo: An Anthology of Philippine-Australian Writings, and Philippine Speculative Fiction IV. In 2007, she received a Palanca Award for her short story “Benito Salazar’s Last Creation”, and in 2009, her play The Foundling was performed in the Fringe Theatre in Hong Kong. She has forthcoming publications in Usok 1 and in an anthology by DAW Books and she is currently collaborating on a second play. She maintains a blog at http://swordskill.wordpress.com.
6. Dominique Gerald Cimafranca teaches various subjects for the Computer Studies Division and Humanities Division of Ateneo de Davao University. He also manages the technology concerns for the Davao Writers Guild. Visit his blog at http://villageidiotsavant.blogspot.com.
7. Kathleen Aton-Osias is an auditor in the Philippines who believes that love, hope and good chocolate could save the world. She has been published locally and on-line, with her story The Riverstone Heart by Maria Dela Rosa being honorably cited in the Years Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as being anthologized in the Best of Serendipity. She has won two Don Carlos Palanca Awards for Short Story – Children.
8. Mia Tijam is pimping her brain to future smiling vampires and brainy zombies in the corporate world in the guerilla effort to make the Philippines a BPO-Happy Country. She has managed to run trapezoids around editors with her distinct writing published in the Philippines Free Press, Philippine Speculative Fiction, the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, Pulp Magazine, and Playboy Philippines. She was also the co-editor of the Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler with Charles Tan. Likewise, her story, “The Ascension of Our Lady Boy,” was cited in the Honorable Mention list of the 2008 Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. And recently, her “Wishes Do Come True” was a finalist in the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards where she did a matador dance with a poet named Rafael San Diego and a drunken waltz with the poet named Gemino H. Abad. She self-respectfully passed out after.
9. Bessi Lasala is currently studying at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. She’s secretly hoping that one day, she will be made ruler of the universe. She resides in Las Pinas, Metro Manila, with her three cats.
10. Paolo Chikiamco is a Filipino writer who resigned from one of Manila’s top law firms to pursue a career in writing and publishing. He’s recently placed in the Palanca Awards (Short Story for Children category) and his stories have been published in the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories and A Time for Dragons: an anthology of Philippine Draconic Fiction. Rocket Kapre, his ebook imprint (along with USOK, his online PinoySF ezine) can be found at http://rocketkapre.com/ and he’d love for writers and readers of Philippine Speculative Fiction to come by and hang out.
11. Vincent Michael Simbulan is a two-time Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awardee for his anthologies, Isaw, Atbp. and Siglo: Freedom. He is the co-founder of Quest Ventures, which is both a publishing house and a coalition of Filipino comic book creators. His work has appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Project: Hero, and the magazines Stuff and Guide. Siglo: Passion, co-edited with Dean Francis Alfar, was his last comic book anthology. His first short-story anthology A Time of Dragons came out in 2009.
12. Joseph F. Nacino worked in media and online publishing for most of his working life until he cracked like an egg. His fiction has been published in Philippine Speculative Fiction, the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, A Time of Dragons, the FHM Erotica Ladies Confessional Special, and Manual Magazine. He was also the first place winner of the 2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. He now serves as the series editor of Estrangheropress.kom.ph on his free time, given that it’s his crazy idea.