
Marjorie Evasco (born September 21, 1953) is a Filipina
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
. She writes in two languages: English and
Cebuano-Visayan and is a supporter of women's rights, especially of women writers. Marjorie Evasco is one of the earliest
Filipina
Filipinos () are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Filipino, English, or other Philippine languages. Despite formerly being subject to ...
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
poets. She is a recipient of the
S.E.A. Write Award
The S.E.A. Write Award, or Southeast Asian Writers Award, is an award that is presented annually since 1979 to poets and writers of Southeast Asia.
The awards are given to the writers from each of the countries comprised in the Association of S ...
.
Biography
Born in Mindoro into a family of teachers who were "always talking English", she was brought up and educated as a Roman Catholic and her formative years in school were spent under the tutelage of German and Belgian nuns. Evasco and her family lived in Tacloban City and Dumaguete City, then moved to
Manila
Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...
in 1984. She finished her ''B.A.'' in 1973 from
Divine Word College of Tagbilaran
Holy Name University is a private, Catholic, research, co-educational basic and higher education institution run by the Philippine Southern Province of the Society of the Divine Word in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines. It was founded by Fr. ...
, ''Masteral Degree in Creative Writing'' in 1981 at
Silliman University
Silliman University (also referred to as Silliman or SU) is a private, Protestant, and research university located in Dumaguete City, Philippines. Established in 1901 as Silliman Institute by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, it is ...
and her ''Doctor of Philosophy in Literature'' (Ph.D. Litt.) at
De La Salle University-Manila
De La Salle University (), also referred to as DLSU, De La Salle or La Salle, is a private university, private, Catholic Church, Catholic coeducational research university run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools with main ...
. In 1984, she became a member of the faculty at De La Salle University, and completed her doctoral degree in 1998. For many years, she was Director of De La Salle University's Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center (BNSCWC). She is currently a University Fellow and Professor Emeritus for Literature at the same university.
Works
Evasco's poetry books are: ''Dreamweavers: Selected Poems 1976-1986'' (1987) and ''Ochre Tones: Poems in English and Cebuano'' (1999). "Dreamweavers" was launched in 1987 at the UP Writers Workshop in Diliman, Quezon City, in Tagbilaran City, and in Dumaguete City at the Sillman University National Writers Workshop. ''Ochre Tones'' was launched in May 1999 at National Artist Edith L. Tiempo's residence on ''Montemar'' (
Sibulan
Sibulan, officially the Municipality of Sibulan (; ), is a municipality in the province of Negros Oriental, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 64,343 people.
Sibulan is from Dumaguete. It is the location of Du ...
,
Negros Oriental
Negros Oriental (; ), officially the Province of Negros Oriental (; ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Negros Island. Its capital is the city of Dumaguete, one of the two regional centers of Negros Island Region, with the other b ...
) and at the Filipinas Heritage Library in Makati City. Evasco calls this volume a " book of changes," following ''Dreamweavers'' which for her was a " book of origins."
EVENpubpresentations: Marjorie Evasco
(retrieved: 7 April 2009)
Her other poetry collections are "Skin of Water" poems in English with their Spanish translations done by Filipino, Spanish, and Latin-American translators; and "Peces de luz/ Fishes of Light," a volume of tanrenga in English and Spanish with Venezuelan-Cuban poet Alex Fleites.
Evasco's other books include ''A Legacy of Light: 100 Years of Sun Life in the Philippines'', ''Six Women Poets: Inter/Views'' (co-authored, with Edna Manlapaz), ''Kung Ibig Mo: Love Poetry by Women'' (co-edited with Benilda Santos), ''A Life Shaped by Music: Andrea O. Veneracion and the Philippine Madrigal Singers'',''ANI: The Life and Art of Hermogena Borja Lungay, Boholano Painter'', and "Valentina's Valor: Stories from the Life and Times of Valentina Galido Plaza."
Evasco was a founding member of two organizations espousing the cause of women writers: Writers Involved in Creating Cultural Alternatives (WICCA) and Women in Literary Arts (WILA). She has written many essays on women's poetry, several of them finding their place in various anthologies.
She served as editor of a special issue of ''Ani'' in 1998 that featured writings and art work by Filipino women. She also edited the book on place and memory of her home-island called "The Bohol We Love: Memoirs of Growing Up Boholano." in 2017. In this memoir, she also translated works in Binisayang Bol-anon into English.
In Spring 1991, she was given a writing residency at Hawthornden Castle: International Writers' Retreat and a travel bursary from the British Council. And in April-May 1992, she enjoyed a writing residency at the Bellagio Studies Center of the Rockefeller Foundation in Lake Como, Italy. In September 2002, she was invited for a three-month residency at the International Writing Program in the University of Iowa.
She is an associate fellow of the Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC), a member of Philippine PEN, and a lifetime member of the Writers' Union of the Philippines (UMPIL).
Awards
Evasco has received several literary awards from the Carlos Palanca
Palanca may refer to:
People
*Bernard Palanca (born 1976), Filipino actor
*Massimo Palanca (born 1953), Italian footballer
*Mico Palanca (1978–2019), Filipino actor
*Miguel Palanca (born 1987), Spanish footballer
Places
* Palanca, Huíla, Ango ...
Memorial Awards for her essays. For her books, she has garnered the National Book Awards
The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
from the Manila Critics' Circle, and the ''Gintong Aklat'' for ''Dreamweavers'' (''Book Development Association of the Philippines''). For her poems, she has won several major prizes from the Philippine Free Press.
Her poems in English and Binisaya (Cebuano-Visayan) have appeared in many important anthologies including ''Luna Caledonia,'' "Agam: Filipino Narratives of Uncertainty and Climate Change,""Sustaining the Archipelago: Anthology of Philippine Ecopoetry," "The First Five: New Literature by Southeast Asian Writers," and the Norton anthology "Language for a New Century: Poems from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond" (Eds. Ravi Shankar, Tina Handal, et al). She has been published extensively in Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
, Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
and her works have been translated into various Philippine languages and world languages, the latest of which was Italian.
She has also participated in various writers' festivals such as the ''10th Vancouver International Writers' Festival'' in 1997; the ''Southeast Asian Writers' festival at the University of Malaya'' Cultural Centre in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...
, Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
in 2003; the ''Wordfeast 1st Singapore International Literary Festival'' in 2004, the Man Hong Kong Literary Festival in 2006. the XVIII International Poetry Festival in Medellin, Colombia in 2008, the 2010 Granada Festival Internacional de Poesia in Granada, Nicaragua, and the 2021 online edition of the Festival Internacional de la Lectura Yucatan (FILEY) where she read with Yucateca writer Sol Ceh Moo and Spanish translator Perla Coll Ehrenberg.
References
External links
Marjorie Evasco by Ed Farolan
Writers in Conversation – Marjorie Evasco and R. Zamora Linmark
Elemental by Marjorie Evasco
Origami by Marjorie Evasco
DLSU Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center
Wordfeast Singapore
The Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival 2006
NCCA Writers’ Prize 2005
* ttp://www.inq7.net/lif/2003/jun/02/lif_1-1.htm 2003 Dumaguete National Writers’ Workshop by Ian Casocot
2006 Iyas Creative Writing Workshop by Rolly Espina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evasco, Marjorie
Writers from Bohol
De La Salle University alumni
Living people
Filipino feminists
Boholano people
1953 births
Filipino women poets
International Writing Program alumni
Silliman University alumni
20th-century Filipino women writers
20th-century Filipino poets
21st-century Filipino women writers
21st-century Filipino poets