FOR HIS prodigious but penetrating work, in both poetry and the essay in English and Filipino, and as much for his exemplary versatility in lending his craft to the different modes and genres of Filipino expression, from fiction and drama to translation and children’s literature. In the use of language that is both heroic and lyric, triumphant and anguished, he has unyieldingly pursued his far-reaching and inward-looking vision of, and practice as, the socially and politically engaged poet. Though itinerant in joining the Filipino Diaspora, he is also pilgrim, never losing sight, scent, and skin, for home. For all this he has become one of the country’s most respected and most awarded writers, earning a place in the Hall of Fame of the Palanca Awards, and various recognitions here and abroad.
BORN ON 7 November 1946 in Bauan, Batangas but spent his childhood in Baguio City. He took BA Foreign Service at the UP and was a political detainee during Marcos regime. He served as information officer of the Philippine diplomatic mission in London for more than a decade. His third poetry book, Passage/Poems 1983-2006, came out in October 2007, under the Bookmark imprint. Most of the poems in this book are part of poetry collections which won in the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Voyage, 1984; Hinterland, 1987; Star Maps, 1988; and Tabon, 2000). Some of them have also appeared in numerous anthologies, journals, magazines, websites, and newspapers, He is included in a poetry anthology entitled Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond, edited by Tina Chang et al, launched April 2008 in New York City by Norton Publishing. His other published poetic works include two earlier collections of prize-winning poetry, Alab: mga tula and Agon: poems (University of the Philippines Press, 1982); and Kudaman: Isang Epikong Palawan na Inawit ni Usuy (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992). Maranan has garnered a total of thirty prizes—a record number—for his works in English and Filipino, in the Philippines’ most prestigious literary competition, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He was inducted into the Carlos Palanca Hall of Fame in September 2000. His latest literary achievements are the 2008 NCCA Writer’s Prize for the English Essay, and a research grant from the Asian Cultural Council to undertake a residency with various Philippine-American community theater groups in the United States.