Jose Dalisay, Jr.

Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. (born January 15, 1954) is a Filipino writer. He has won numerous awards and prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, non-fiction and screenwriting, including 16 Palanca Awards.

Dalisay was born in Romblon in 1954. He completed his primary education at La Salle Green Hills, Philippines in 1966 and his secondary education at the Philippine Science High School in 1970. He dropped out of college to work as a newspaper reporter. He also wrote scripts mostly for Lino Brocka, the National Artist of the Philippines for Theater and Film. Dalisay returned to school and earned his B.A. English (Imaginative Writing) degree, cum laude from the University of the Philippines in 1984. He later received an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan in 1988 and a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1991 as a Fulbright scholar.

Dalisay has authored more than 30 books since 1984. Six of those books have garnered National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle. In 1998, Dalisay made it to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Centennial Honors List as one of the 100 most accomplished Filipino artists of the past century. Among his numerous books are Oldtimer and Other Stories (Asphodel, 1984; U.P. Press, 2003); Sarcophagus and Other Stories (U.P. Press, 1992); Killing Time in a Warm Place (Anvil, 1992); Madilim ang Gabi sa Laot at Iba Pang mga Dula ng Ligaw na Pag-Ibig (U.P. Press, 1993); Penmanship and Other Stories (Cacho, 1995); The Island (Ayala Foundation, 1996); Pagsabog ng Liwanag/Aninag, Anino (U.P. Press, 1996); Mac Malicsi, TNT/Ang Butihing Babae ng Timog (U.P. Press, 1997); The Lavas: A Filipino Family (Anvil, 1999); The Best of Barfly (Anvil, 1997); The Filipino Flag (Inquirer Publications, 2004); Man Overboard (Milflores, 2005); Journeys with Light: The Vision of Jaime Zobel (Ayala Foundation, 2005); Selected Stories (U.P. Press, 2005); and "The Knowing Is in the Writing: Notes on the Practice of Fiction" (U.P. Press, 2006).

Dalisay has also worked extensively as a professional editor. He served as Executive Editor of the ten-volume Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People (Manila: Asia Publishing/Reader's Digest Asia [1], 1998). His clients have included the Asian Development Bank, the Ayala Foundation, SGV & Co., the National Economic and Development Authority, the Office of the (Philippine) President, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippine Airlines, and the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation, among others.

Dalisay has won 16 Palanca Awards in five genres. For winning at least five First Prize awards, he was elevated to the Palanca Hall of Fame in 2000. He has also garnered five Cultural Center of the Philippines awards for playwriting; and FAMAS, URIAN, Star and Catholic Mass Media awards and citations for his screenplays. He also chaired the 1992 ASEAN Writers Conference/Workshop, in Penang, Malaysia. He was named one of The Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of 1993 for his creative writing. In 2005, he received the Premio Cervara di Roma in Italy for extensively promoting Philippine literature overseas. In 2007, his second novel, Soledad's Sister, was shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong Kong.

He has received Hawthornden Castle, British Council, David T.K. Wong, Rockefeller (Bellagio), and Civitella Ranieri fellowships, and has held the Henry Lee Irwin Professorial Chair at the Ateneo de Manila University; and the Jose Joya, Jorge Bocobo, and Elpidio Quirino professorial chairs at U.P. Diliman. He has lectured on Philippine culture and politics at the University of Michigan, University of Auckland, Australian National University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, St. Norbert College (Wisconsin, U.S.), University of East Anglia, University of Rome, London School of Economics, and the University of California, San Diego, where he was named Pacific Leadership Fellow in 2015..

After serving for three years as English and Comparative Literature Department Chair, Dalisay assumed the post of Vice President for Public Affairs of the U.P. System from May 2003 to February 2005; he returned to the post in February 2017 and retired in January 2019. He is currently a Professor Emeritus of English and creative writing at the College of Arts and Letters, U.P. Diliman, where he also coordinated the creative writing program. He was Director of the U.P. Institute of Creative Writing from 2008 to 2017. Aside from his weekly Arts & Culture column for the Philippine Star, he wrote political and social commentary for the newsmagazine Newsbreak and the San Francisco-based Filipinas magazine.

In 2017, the One UP-Jose Yap Dalisay Jr. Professorial Chair in Creative Writing was endowed in his honor by an anonymous donor at the University of the Philippines.

Novels

• Killing Time in a Warm Place, 1992
• Soledad's Sister, 2008
• "Soledad: Rocambolesco Romanzo Filippino" (Italian edition), 2009
• "In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines" (a combined US edition), 2011
• La Soeur de Soledad," (French edition), 2013

Plays

• Madilim ang Gabi sa Laot at Iba Pang Mga Dula ng Ligaw na Pag-Ibig, 1993
• Pagsabog ng Liwanag/Aninag, Anino, 1996
• Ang Butihing Babae ng Timog/Mac Malicsi, TNT, 1997

Screenplays

More than twenty produced screenplays, including

• Tayong Dalawa, 1994
• Miguelito, 1995
• Saranggola, 1999

Nonfiction

• The Best of Barfly, 1997
• The Lavas: A Filipino Family, 1999
• Man Overboard, 2005
• "Power from the Deep: The Malampaya Story", 2005
• "Unleashing the Power of Steam: The PNOC-EDC Story", 2006
• "Portraits of a Tangled Relationship: The Philippines and the United States" (withJose Ma. Cariño et al.), 2008
• "Wash: Only a Bookkeeper", 2009
• "The Voices of the Mountain: The People of Mt. Apo Speak", 2009
• "Decade of Reform, Decade of Innovation: The GSIS Under PGM Winston Garcia, 2001–2010", 2010
• "Builder of Bridges: The Rudy Cuenca Story," 2010

Other books

• (as editor) Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People, 1998
• The Filipino Flag, 2004
• "Selected Stories," 2005
• Journeys with Light: The Vision of Jaime Zobel, 2005
• "The Knowing is in the Writing: Notes on the Practice of Fiction," The UP Press, 2006
• "Pinoy Septych and Other Poems," UST Publishing House, 2011

• Civitella Ranieri Fellowship
• David T.K. Wong Fellowship for Creative Writing, University of East Anglia
• Chamberlain Award
• Milwaukee Fiction Award
• American Poets Prize
• Fulbright- Hays Scholarship
• Hawthornden Castle Fellowship, Scotland
• British Council Fellow to Cambridge
• Word Festival (Australia)
• Asia 2000 (New Zealand)
• Centennial Honors for the Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines
• Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines
• Cultural Center of the Philippines Awards for Literature
• National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle
• FAMAS Award for Best Screenplay
• Catholic Mass Media Award for Best Screenplay
• URIAN citation for Best Screenplay
• Star Awards citation for Best Screenplay
• Palanca Awards for Literature
• Palanca Hall of Fame Winner
• Man Asian Literary Prize 2007 Shortlistee for Soledad's Sister
• 7th Department of Tourism Kalakbay Award for Best Travel Writer
• Fellow, Standard Chartered International Literary Festival, Hong Kong
• Philippines Free Press Awards at the Wayback Machine (archived August 31, 2004)
• Philippine Graphic Awards
• U.P. President's Award for Outstanding Publications
• Writing fellow, 20th Dumaguete National Writers' Workshop (1981)
• Henry Lee Irwin Professorial Chair, Ateneo de Manila University
• Jose Joya, Jorge Bocobo, and Elpidio Quirino Professorial Chairs at the U.P. Diliman
• Rockefeller Fellowship in Bellagio, Italy
• Premio Cervara di Roma, Italy
• Has lectured at the University of Michigan, University of Auckland, Australian National University, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, St. Norbert College, University of East Anglia, University of Rome, and the London School of Economics and the University of California, San Diego

• Jose Dalisay Jr. on IMDb
• U.P. Institute of Creative Writing
• Philippine-American Educational Foundation
• 20th Dumaguete National Writers Workshop
• Odds and ends from a writer, teacher, and Mac addict from the Philippines
• New Zealand Writers’ Ezine
• National Academy of Science and Technology
• Archipelago
• UP Forum Online
• Cyberdyaryo
• English Speaking Union
• The Filipino Short Story in English: An Update for the ‘90s at the Wayback Machine (archived March 23, 2005)
• University of Michigan
• Remembering NVM by Jose Y. Dalisay Jr.
• University of East Anglia
• Christchurch City Council, New Zealand
• Filipinas Heritage Library
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
• Association of Academies of Sciences in Asia
• University of California, San Diego
• Philippine Star
• University of California, Berkeley
• Kalakbay Awards, Department of Tourism
• 2nd Hong Kong International Literary Festival
• Philippine Science High School Alumni Association
• Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino 1977
• Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino 1985
• University of Hawaii at Manola Library
• University of Illinois at Springfield
• The Don Carlos Palanca Awards 1987
• Jose Y. Dalisay Jr., Ph.D. at Mac.com
• Jose Y. Dalisay Jr., Saranggola, Review Summary, Filmography, Movies, The New York Times, 1999
• Jose Y. Dalisay Jr., Saranggola, Filmography, Movies, The New York Times, 1999
• Jose Dalisay Jr. on IMDb