Articles by Merlinda Bobis

Filipino-Australian writer, performer, and academic Merlinda Bobis writes in three languages: English, Pilipino, Bikol. She has published three novels, a collection of short stories, five poetry books, a monograph on creative research, and scholarly essays on creative-critical production, militarism, migration, and the transnational imaginary. She has received various awards for her works, among them the Prix Italia (Radio Fiction) and the Australian Writers’ Guild Award (Radio Play) for Rita’s Lullaby; the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, the Philippine National Book Award, and the Judges’ Choice Award (Bumbershoot Bookfair, Seattle Arts Festival) for White Turtle / The Kissing (US title); the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature for her poetry; and the Philippine Balagtas Award, a lifetime award for her fiction and poetry in English, Pilipino and Bikol. Her poetry book Summer was a Fast Train without Terminals was short-listed for The Age Poetry Book Award, and her novel Banana Heart Summer, for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. This novel also received the Philippine Golden Book Award. Her latest novel Fish-Hair Woman will be adapted into a play in Pilipino by the Harlequin Theatre Company (Manila). Bobis’s six plays have been performed/produced, some as her one-woman show, in Australia, Philippines, US, Spain, Canada, France, China, Thailand, and the Slovak Republic. As a multi-genre writer and a performer for stage and radio, Bobis has worked with artists from various disciplines. She teaches Creative Writing at University of Wollongong, Australia. About her creative process, she writes: ‘Writing visits like grace. In an inspired moment we almost believe that anguish can be made bearable and injustice can be overturned, because they can be named. And if we’re lucky, joy can even be multiplied, so we may have reserves in the cupboard for the lean times.’ Author’s website: http://www.merlindabobis.com.au