Gerly T.

Canoy Afro-Asian Literature

BSEd-English IIIA MW (1:30-3:00)

A greeting of peace and joy!

I am Marjorie Evasco, an award-winning Filipina poet, born in Maribojoc, Bohol on
September 21, 1953. I write in two languages, English and Cebuano-Visayan, and I am a
supporter of womens rights, especially women writers. I am one of the earliest Filipina
feminist poets.
I was born into a family of teachers who are always talking English. I was brought
up and educated as Roman Catholic and my formative years are spent under the tutelage
of German and Belgian nuns. I and my family then moved to Manila. I finished my B.A.
in 1973 from Divine Word College, my Masteral Degree in Creative Writing in 1982 at
Silliman University and Doctor of Philosophy in Literature at De La Salle University. I
became a faculty member of De La Salle University while completing my doctoral degree
in 1998. For many years, I was the director of De La Salle Universitys Bienvenido N.
Santos Creative Writing Center. I am currently a University fellow of the same university.
I am a founding member of two organizations espousing the cause of women writers
namely, Writers Involved in Creating Cultural Alternatives and Women in Literary Arts. I
have written many essays on womens poetry, several of them finding their place on
various anthologies. I served as an editor of a special issue of Ani in 1998 that feature
writings and art work of Filipino women.
I received many awards nationally and internationally. My prize winning poetry
books are: Dreamweavers:Selected Poems and Ochre Tones:Poems in English and
Cebuano-Visayan. I call the Ochre Tones as book of changes following the
Dreamweavers which was for me the book of origins. I am currently writing on my
third poetry collection and I hope to finish it soon. Thank you for listening.