Eric Gamalinda

Eric Gamalinda was born and raised in Manila, where he worked as an investigative journalist until he emigrated to the United States in 1993. He is the author of five celebrated novels, all originally published in the Philippines. He is also a poet, playwright and experimental film-maker, and has received the Asian American Literary Award for his collection of poems Zero Gravity, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for fiction, the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for his fourth novel, My Sad Republic, the Philippine National Book Award for his first novel, Planet Waves and several Carlos Palanca awards for his novel Empire of Memory, his poetry, non-fiction and plays. Akashic Books will publish his next novel, The Descartes Highlands, in November 2014. He lives primarily in New York and teaches at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.