2020

Francis C. Macansantos was born in Cotabato City, grew up in Zamboanga City, and was a resident of Baguio City from 1981 until his demise in July 2017. He earned his MA (Creative Writing) from Silliman University in Dumaguete City and was a five-time Palanca award winner in English Poetry. He won the NCCA (National Commission for Culture and the Arts) Writer?s Prize for Epic Poetry in 2003, and has four books of poetry: The Words and Other Poems (UP Press 1997), Womb of Water, Breasts of Earth (NCCA 2007), Balsa: Poemas Chabacano (NCCA 2011) and Snail Fever (UP Press 2016). Snail Fever won the National Book Award for Poetry in English in 2017. Balsa – a collection of 31 poems in Chabacano, with translations into English – was finalist in the National Book Award in 2012 for Poetry in English. Macansantos taught at several universities, including Mindanao State University and the University of the Philippines, and served in panels of critics in creative writing workshops throughout the Philippines. In 2007 and 2014, he was elected as Baguio/Cordillera representative in the Executive Committee for Literary Arts of the NCCA. In 2014, Macansantos was one of the recipients of the Martha Faust Sonnet Prize in Minnesota.