Bio
Eric Gamalinda’s work has been described as “luminous” (Arthur Sze) and “wonderful and vibrant” (Michael Burkard). “Gamalinda is a marvelous poet,” wrote D. Nurkse, poet laureate of Brooklyn. “His wistful, fierce, enthralled voice seems to speak the true language, the sotto voce language we can’t hear in our world of binary and mutually destructive opposites.”
Recent awards and grants for his work include the Man Asian Prize shortlist [2009], the Cultural Center of the Philippines Independent Film and Video Awards [2004], the Asian American Literary Award and the Alice James Books New York/New England Selection for Zero Gravity [poems, 2000], the New York Foundation for the Arts [fiction, 1998], the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for My Sad Republic [novel, 1998], and the Philippine National Book Award twice for Planet Waves [novel, 1990] and My Sad Republic [2000]. He has also won the Philippines’ top literary prize, the Palanca Memorial Awards, several times for poetry, fiction, non-fiction and playwriting. In 2010, his three-act play, Resurrection, was staged off-Broadway at the Clurman Theater on 42nd Street by Diverse City Inc.
Scott Hightower, writing in Coldfront Magazine, has described his poetry as “ambitious and dazzling.” Eugene Gloria, winner of the National Poetry Series, has said, “When I read Gamalinda’s new poems, I am moved by his abundance of feeling. His poetic vision has widened into Whitmanesque proportions. To paraphrase Whitman himself, Gamalinda’s poems are large, they contain multitudes. But one musn’t confuse this bigness of feeling with easy emotions. His poems are not sentimental, but are the stuff of honest human emotions.”
Eric Gamalinda has been in residence at Civitella Ranieri [Italy], Association d’Art de La Napoule [France], Chateau de Lavigny Residence pour Ecrivains [Switzerland], Fundacion Valparaiso [Spain], The Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio [Italy], Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers [Scotland], and The Corporation of Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Ledig House International Writers Colony [USA]. In 2013, he returned to Fundacion Valparaiso for a second residency, where he began work on a new novel.
He was publications director of the Asian American Writers Workshop until 1997, Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawaii in Manoa in 1999, and Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asia Pacific American Studies Program in 2002-2003. He currently teaches at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.
Publications
Poetry
Novels
Short fiction
Anthology
Other publications
Eric Gamalinda is represented worldwide by Straus Literary Agency in New York City: www.strausliterary.com, 646 834-9950, fax 646 390-3320.
Recent awards and grants for his work include the Man Asian Prize shortlist [2009], the Cultural Center of the Philippines Independent Film and Video Awards [2004], the Asian American Literary Award and the Alice James Books New York/New England Selection for Zero Gravity [poems, 2000], the New York Foundation for the Arts [fiction, 1998], the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for My Sad Republic [novel, 1998], and the Philippine National Book Award twice for Planet Waves [novel, 1990] and My Sad Republic [2000]. He has also won the Philippines’ top literary prize, the Palanca Memorial Awards, several times for poetry, fiction, non-fiction and playwriting. In 2010, his three-act play, Resurrection, was staged off-Broadway at the Clurman Theater on 42nd Street by Diverse City Inc.
Scott Hightower, writing in Coldfront Magazine, has described his poetry as “ambitious and dazzling.” Eugene Gloria, winner of the National Poetry Series, has said, “When I read Gamalinda’s new poems, I am moved by his abundance of feeling. His poetic vision has widened into Whitmanesque proportions. To paraphrase Whitman himself, Gamalinda’s poems are large, they contain multitudes. But one musn’t confuse this bigness of feeling with easy emotions. His poems are not sentimental, but are the stuff of honest human emotions.”
Eric Gamalinda has been in residence at Civitella Ranieri [Italy], Association d’Art de La Napoule [France], Chateau de Lavigny Residence pour Ecrivains [Switzerland], Fundacion Valparaiso [Spain], The Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio [Italy], Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers [Scotland], and The Corporation of Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Ledig House International Writers Colony [USA]. In 2013, he returned to Fundacion Valparaiso for a second residency, where he began work on a new novel.
He was publications director of the Asian American Writers Workshop until 1997, Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawaii in Manoa in 1999, and Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asia Pacific American Studies Program in 2002-2003. He currently teaches at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.
Publications
Poetry
- Amigo Warfare [Cherry Grove Collections, Cincinnati OH, 2007]
- Zero Gravity [Alice James Books, Farmington ME, 1999]
- Lyrics from a Dead Language [Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1991]
Novels
- My Sad Republic [University of the Philippines Press, 2000]
- Empire of Memory [Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1992]
- Confessions of a Volcano [Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1990]
- Planet Waves [New Day, Manila, 1989]
Short fiction
- People Are Strange [Black Lawrence Press, New York, 2012]
- Peripheral Vision [New Day, 1992]
Anthology
- Flippin': Filipinos on America [Asian American Writers Workshop, New York, 1996]
Other publications
- Eric Gamalinda's stories have been published in Harper's Magazine and anthologized in Charlie Chan is Dead 2: At Home in the World [Penguin]; The Thirdest World [factory school]; Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing [Rutgers University Press]; Juncture: New Experimental Writing [Soft Skull]; In My Life: Encounters with the Beatles [Fromm International]; Balikbayan: Racconti filippini contemporanei [Feltrinelli, Milan]. A new story will soon appear in Manila Noir [Akashic Books].
- His poems have been anthologized in Language for a New Century [W.W. Norton]; Structure & Surprise [Teachers & Writers Collaborative]; Stranger at Home [Interpoezia/Numina Press]; Saints of Hysteria [Soft Skull Press]; Poetry Daily [Sourcebooks Inc.]; Sweet Jesus [The Anthology Press]; Returning a Borrowed Tongue [Coffee House Press]; Brown River, White Ocean [Rutgers University Press]; Lo Ultimo de Filipinas: Antologia Poetica [Huerga y Fierro, Madrid].
- His essays have been anthologized in Vestiges of War: The Philippine American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream [New York University Press, 2003] and Pinoy Poetics [Meritage Press, CA, 2004].
Eric Gamalinda is represented worldwide by Straus Literary Agency in New York City: www.strausliterary.com, 646 834-9950, fax 646 390-3320.
