Education

Luisa A. Igloria received her undergraduate degree from the University of the Philippines,
Baguio in 1980 (B.A. Humanities - Cum Laude - major in Comparative Literature, minor
in English, cognate in Philosophy), and the M.A. in Literature at Ateneo de Manila
University at Manila, Philippines in 1988 as a Robert Southwell Fellow. She received a
Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago in July 1995,
where she was a Fulbright Fellow.

Career
While in Chicago, Igloria was an active member of PINTIG, a Filipino-American cultural
and theatre group; she was a member of PINTIG's cultural and education committee. She
was a Visiting Humanities Scholar in 1996 at the Center for Philippine Studies at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also taught briefly at De La Salle University where
she became the Graduate Programs Coordinator and Senior Associate for Poetry at the
Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center at De La Salle University.
She has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals including the very first electronic
anthology of Women's Poetry Fire On Her Tongue ﾧ (Two Sylvias Press, 2011), Language
for a New Century ﾧ, ed. Tina Chang, Ravi Shankar, and Nathalie Handal (W.W. Norton,
2008), Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-po Listserv ﾧ, ed. by Moira Richards,
Rosemary Starace, and Lesley Wheeler (Red Hen Press, 2007), Poetry, Crab Orchard
Review, The Missouri Review, Indiana Review, The North American Review, Natural
Bridge, Poetry East, Smartish Pace, The Asian Pacific American Journal, and
TriQuarterly. She edited the anthology NOT HOME, BUT HERE: WRITING FROM
THE FILIPINO DIASPORA (Anvil, 2003).
She has published 13 books and 3 chapbooks to date

Awards
She is highly decorated for her expanse of work. Luisa is an eleven-time (five First
Prizes, plus six lesser prizes) recipient of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for
Literature in three genres (poetry, nonfiction, and short fiction); the Palanca award is the
Philippines' highest literary distinction. In 1996 she became the first Filipina woman of
letters installed in the Palanca Literary Hall of Fame. She is also the recipient of the 1988
Black Warrior Literary Award from the literary magazine of the University of Alabama;
the Charles Goodnow Endowed Award for Creative Writing from the Chicago Bar
Association in 1993 and 1995; the 1998 Illinois Arts Council Literary Award and the
George Kent Prize for Poetry.
Recent awards include the (inaugural) 2015 Resurgence Prize for Ecopoetry ﾧ (UK), the
2014 May Swenson Poetry Prize ﾧ from Utah State University Press, the 2009 Ernest
Sandeen Prize in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame Press, the 2007 49th Parallel
Prize in Poetry from the Bellingham Review, the 2007 James Hearst Poetry Prize
(selected by former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser), the 2006 National Writers Union
Poetry Prize (selected by Adrienne Rich), the 2006 Stephen Dunn Award for Poetry; the
first Sylvia Clare Brown Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation (Summer 2006 Residency);
Finalist for the 2005 George Bogin Memorial Award for Poetry (Poetry Society of
America; selected by Joy Harjo); the 2005 Richard Lemon Poetry Fellowship to the Napa
Valley Writers Conference; First Prize in the 2004 Fugue poetry contest (selected by
Ellen Bryant Voigt); Finalist in the 2003 Larry Levis Editors Prize for Poetry from The
Missouri Review; Finalist in the 2003 Dorset Prize for Poetry (Tupelo Press); a 2003
partial fellowship to the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg; three Pushcart Prize
nominations and the 1998 George Kent Award for Poetry.

Other Information
Luisa is a tenured Professor of English. She served as Director of the MFA Creative
Writing Program, Department of English from 2009-2015 Old Dominion University
(Norfolk, Virginia). Her husband is Ruben V. Igloria (b. 1964). She has four daughters:
Jennifer Patricia A. Cariño ﾧ (b. 1981), Julia Katrina A. Cariño ﾧ (b. 1983), Josephine
Anne A. Cariño ﾧ (b. 1988), and Gabriela Aurora Igloria (b. 2001).

Books and Publications

 Since November 20, 2010, Luisa has been writing (at least) a poem a day for her
daily writing project; these poems are archived ﾧ at Dave Bonta's Via Negativa
website.
 Other works may be found through From The Fishhouse ﾧ and her website ﾧ.

Books:

 Cordillera Tales (New Day, 1990); 1991 National Book Award (Manila Critics
Circle, Philippines)
 Cartography (Anvil, 1992); 1993 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics
Circle, Philippines)
 Encanto (Anvil, 1993); 1994 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics
Circle, Philippines)
 In the Garden of the Three Islands (Moyer Bell/Asphodel, 1995)
 Blood Sacrifice (University of the Philippines Press, 1997); 1998 National Book
Award for Poetry (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
 Songs for the Beginning of the Millennium (De La Salle University Press, 1997);
Finalist, 1998 National Book Award for Poetry (Manila Critics Circle, Philippines)
 Turnings: Writing on Women's Transformations, co-edited with Renee Olander
(Friends of Women’s Studies at Old Dominion University, March 2000)
 Not Home, But Here: Writing from the Filipino Diaspora, as central editor (Anvil,
2003)
 Trill and Mordent (WordTech Editions, fall 2005); Runner-up, 2004 Editions Prize
 Juan Luna's Revolver http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01279 ﾧ (now available from
Amazon.com as well as from the University of Notre Dame Press [1]ﾧ); 2009 Ernest
 Sandeen Prize in Poetry
 The Saints of Streets (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2013)
 Night Willow (Phoenicia Publishing, Montreal, 2014)
 Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser (2014 May Swenson Prize, Utah
State University Press)

Chapbooks:

 Bright as Mirrors Left in the Grass (Kudzu House Quarterly, spring 2014)
 Check & Balance (Moria Press/Locofo Chaps, 2017)
 Haori (Tea & Tattered Pages Press, April 2017)

One of her masterpiece: