Mario Eric Gamalinda (born October 14, 1956 in Quezon City, Philippines) is a poet, fiction writer, playwright, and experimental filmmaker. Recognition for his work includes a New York State Council of the Arts grant for film and media [2014], the Cultural Center of the Philippines Independent Film and Video Awards [2004], the Asian American Literary Award and the Alice James Books New York/New England Selection for Zero Gravity [poems, 2000], the New York Foundation for the Arts [fiction, 1998], the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for My Sad Republic [novel, 1998], the Philippine National Book Award twice for Planet Waves [novel, 1990] and My Sad Republic [2000], and the Asiaweek Short Story Competition [1985]. He has also won the Philippines’ top literary prize, the Palanca Memorial Awards, several times for poetry, fiction, non-fiction and playwriting. He was a featured poet in The Dodge Festival's Poets Among Us program in 1996. In 2009, his novel, The Descartes Highlands, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize. In 2010, his three-act play, Resurrection, was staged off-Broadway at the Clurman Theater on 42nd Street by Diverse City Inc. He has been in residence at Civitella Ranieri [Italy], Association d’Art de La Napoule [France], Chateau de Lavigny Residence pour Ecrivains [Switzerland], Fundacion Valparaiso [Spain], The Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio [Italy], Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers [Scotland], and The Corporation of Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ledig House International Writers Colony [US]. In 2013 he returned to Fundacion Valparaiso to work on a new novel. He was a publications director of the Asian American Writers Workshop until 1997, Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Hawaii in Manoa in 1999, and visiting scholar at New York University’s Asia Pacific American Studies Program in 2002-2003. He currently teaches at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. Works Publications Poetry—Amigo Warfare [Cherry Grove Collections, Cincinnati OH, 2007], Zero Gravity [Alice James Books, Farmington ME, 1999]; Lyrics from a Dead Language [Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1991] Novels—The Descartes Highlands [Akashic Books, 2014]; My Sad Republic [University of the Philippines Press, 2000]; Empire of Memory, Confessions of a Volcano [both Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1992, 1990]; Planet Waves [New Day, Manila, 1989] Short fiction—People Are Strange Black Lawrence Press, New York, 2012]; Peripheral Vision [New Day, 1992] Anthology—Flippin': Filipinos on America [Asian American Writers Workshop, New