MANILA, Philippines - Powerbooks Specialty Store picks Rio Alma as its Filipino author of the month. Artist, poet, critic, translator, editor, teacher, and cultural manager Virgilio Almario, more popularly known by his pen name Rio Alma, is a National Artist for Literature in the Philippines. Almario completed his degree in A.B. Political Science at the University of the Philippines.
A truly prolific writer, he spearheaded the second successful modernist movement in Filipino poetry, and later, during the martial law years, set aside modernism and formalism for an interest in politics and social activism. His critical works, on the other hand, deal with the issue of national language.
Aside from being a critic, Almario has translated the best contemporary poets of the world, as well as the plays of Nick Joaquin, Bertolt Brecht, Euripedes and Maxim Gorki. The Manila Critics Circle deemed his translation of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo as the best translation of these works.
Almario is a recipient of numerous accolades such as several Palanca Awards, two grand prizes from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the TOYM for literature, and the Southeast Asia Write Award of Bangkok.
Almario is also the founder and workshop director of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), an organization of poets who write in Filipino.
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