Authors

ROY VADIL ARAGON

RVA is a fictionist and poet, he writes mostly in Ilokano, and also in Tagalog and English. Many of his poems, short stories, and essays are published in Bannawag, the leading Ilokano magazine. He has won prizes in various literary competitions in Ilokano short story and Ilokano poetry. He also won three third prizes in Short Story, Ilokano Division in 1999, 2014, and 2016; and second prize in Short Story, Filipino Division in 2001, of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He has also joined national writers’ workshops: as fellow for fiction in the 1996 U.P. National Writers Workshop (Baguio City), delegate/panelist in the 2011 Taboan Writers Festival (Davao City), fellow for poetry in the 9th Lamiraw Literary Workshop (2012, Calbayog City), and fellow for poetry in the 11th Palihang Rogelio Sicat (2018, Baguio City). 

He published his first printed book, BAGI dandaniw, a collection of his selected Ilokano poetry, in 2015. In 2017, he published PAKSUY dandaniw & poems, a chapbook of poems in Ilokano and English. His book of his selected Ilokano short stories, BANNUAR ken Dadduma Pay a Fiksion, was published in 2018. In 2000, he released a digital book of his Ilokano poetry, Napili ken Saan a Napili a Dandaniw ken Dadduma Pay a Riknakem, which is considered as the first Ilokano poetry ebook. In 2019, he published two more Ilokano poetry collections, RABII 100 a #tweetniw and BARIBARI.  In 2020, he published another Ilokano poetry collection, in digital format, Atap: Baro ken Napabaro a Dandaniw, and in 2021 in its printed format (paperback). Another poetry collection and short fiction collection are forthcoming in 2022. He also co-edited various anthologies of Ilokano fiction and poetry. 

Besides writing, he also edits and designs books, and works as a freelance translator-editor (English-Ilokano, Ilokano-English, Ilokano-Tagalog, Tagalog-Ilokano, English-Tagalog, Tagalog-English pairs). Also a blogger since the 1990s, he maintains food blogs like Pinakbet Republic (pinakbetrepublic.blogspot.com), and administers the widely popular Ilokano Food page in Facebook (facebook.com/ilokanofoods).

See also the author’s Wikipedia page.

You can support RVA’s book projects and other endeavors by buying him a coffee 🙂