A conversation with Miguel Syjuco in UST

The UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS), in cooperation with the UST Department of Literature, will be holding “Writing in Exile: A Conversation with Miguel Syjuco” on May 4, 2016, 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Tanghalang Teresita Quirino, G/F Benavides Bldg., University of Santo Tomas, España St., Sampaloc, Manila.

This event is part of the UST CCWLS’s International Writers and Scholars Series (IWSS) which consists of formal lectures and informal conversations. 

The IWSS is a regular program of the UST CCWLS and previous speakers include Filipino writers based abroad like Ninotchka Rosca, Sabina Murray, Gina Apostol, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, R. Zamora Linmark, Marivi Soliven, Lara Stapleton, M. Evelina Galang, Fidelito Cortes, Nerissa Balce, Amalia Bueno and Robert Nery, and foreign writers, like Tim Tomlinson, Dennis Haskell, and Xu Xi.

Miguel Syjuco is the grand prize winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize for his debut novel "Ilustrado" in 2008, which also won the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, the Filipino Readers’ Choice Award, and the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction.

"Ilustrado" was also a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award, the Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal, the Prix Jan Michalski, the Prix Courrier International, the Premio Von Rezzori, and the Commonwealth First Book Prize for the Canada and Caribbean region. It has been translated into more than 15 languages. His second novel titled "I Was The President's Mistress!! A Celebrity Tell-All Memoir" is forthcoming.

Syjuco was a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University, a writer-in-residence at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and a visiting professor at New York University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the Santa Maddalena Foundation and grants from the Adelaide International Scholarship, Canada Council for the Arts, and Quebec Arts Council.

Syjuco is the literary editor of the Manila Review and a member of the Academy of the Folio Prize. He has written for the New York Times, Newsweek, and the International Herald Tribune. He graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. He completed his M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Columbia University and earned his PhD at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

The event is open to creative writers, literary enthusiasts and the general public. Call Ms. Anna Nicolas at 406-1611 local 8281 for seat reservations.