Merlie M. Alunan

Merlie M. Alunan (born December 14, 1943) is a multi-awarded Filipina poet, teacher and mentor, and cultural worker in the Visayas.

Life Merlie M. Alunan was born December 14, 1943, in Dingle, Iloilo. Alunan graduated from Silliman University with an MA in creative writing in 1974. She taught Literature and Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College. She was awarded Professor Emeritus of the UP Visayas in 2008 upon her retirement. She lives in Tacloban City.

Honors and awards

Local awards, honors, and distinctions +National Book Awards - Philippines

1984: Likhaan Award for Poetry, UP Creative Writing Center 1994: Free Press Literary Award for Poetry 1995: Free Press Literary Award for Poetry 1995: Home Life Magazine Poetry Writing Contest, Second Prize, "Hunger" 1996: Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Creative Work 1997: Gawad Alagad ni Balagtas Award 2003: Catholic Mass Media Award for Best Column 2004: Home Life Magazine Poetry Writing Contest, First Prize, "Mater Dolorosa in Two Voices" 2015: Gawad Kampeon ng Wika 2018: Garbo sa Ormoc for Literary Arts 2020: Nominated for the Order of National Artist of the Philippines 2026: Ani ng Dangal Award

International awards, honors, and distinctions

1997: Honorable Mention, Lilian Jerome Thornton Award for Poetry 2010: Ananda Coomaraswamy Fellowship in Literature, Sahitya Akademi, Republic of India. 2013: Sunthorn Phu Award for Poetry, Government of Thailand. 2025: Elected as Royal Society of Literature International Writer. 2026: Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature

Works Hearthstone, Sacred Tree, Anvil, 1993, Amina among the angels, University of the Philippines Press, 1997, Selected poems, University of the Philippines Press, 2004, Tales of the Spider Woman, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2010. Pagdakop sa Bulalakaw ug uban pang mga Balak, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2013. Running with Ghosts, Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2018. Tigom: Collected Poems, UP Press, 2023.

Edited non-literary anthologies Kabilin Legacy of 100 years of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental Centennial Foundation, 1993. (Co-editor with Bobby Villasis) Kaaging Bisaya. UP Center for Women Studies, Ford Foundation, April 2003.

Edited literary anthologies Fern Garden: An Anthology of Women Writing in the South, Committee on Literature, National Commission on Culture and the Arts, 1998, An Siday han DYVL, NCCA, UPTC VisWrite, Province of Leyte, DYVL Aksyon Radyo, 2005. The Dumaguete We Know, Anvil Publishing, 2011. Our Memory of Water Words After Haiyan, Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2016. Sa Atong Dila, Introduction to Visayan Literature, University of the Philippines Press. 2016. Susumaton, Oral Narratives of Leyte, Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2017. Tinalunay, Anthology of Waray Literature, University of the Philippines Press. 2018. Pinili: 15 Years of Lamiraw, Katig Writers Network Inc., 2019.

Anthologies Songs of ourselves: writings by Filipino women in English, Editor Edna Zapanta-Manlapaz, Anvil Publishing, 1994,