Contact

[email protected]

Genevieve L. Asenjo

Full Professor

Educational Background
AB in Literature
University of the Philippines – Visayas, Philippines

MFA in Creative Writing
De La Salle University, Philippines

PhD in Literature
De La Salle University, Philippines

Genevieve L. Asenjo is a professor of literature and creative writing at De La Salle University for more than 20 years now. Her research interests include literary history, literature and the environment, island, and cultural studies. She is featured in the 2018 Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Art (Literature) for her award-winning and multi-genre works in three Philippine languages: Kinaray-a, Hiligaynon, and Filipino. Her works examine inter-island migration, water crisis, food security, environment, and the struggles of women and the Indigenous Peoples of Panay Island. She has authored three bilingual poetry and short story collections, a novel, a children’s book, and staged one-act plays. She is well-anthologized locally and published internationally in English translation. Her book Ang Itim na Orkidyas ng Isla Boracay: Mga Kuwento (UP Press, 2021) won the 40th National Book Awards. She maintains an online platform, Balay Sugidanun (The House of Storytelling), and co-organizes writing workshops, storytelling sessions, cultural and social activities with her community and local schools, and with fellow writers and independent collectives. She earned her BA Literature at UP in the Visayas (Miag-ao) and was given the Centennial Model ng Iskolar ng Bayan Award (Literary Arts), and her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and PhD in Literature at De La Salle University, with High Distinction. She has enjoyed writing fellowships in Seoul, South Korea, and with the International Writing Program of the University of Iowa. She is currently working on a research project on the vocabulary of river in her mother tongue Kinaray-a, and completing two translation works. She has finished her first collection of personal essays, a meditation on awe and life in the margins on her hut-living during the pandemic, amidst climate change and accelerated urbanization of the countryside.

Research Interest