About Bino
Author Bio below is ready for use. There is a short version and a longer version if the short one is not enough. Please email and check with the author at binoliterary@gmail.com, and please don't edit without permission. Thank you.
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Short Bio
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Bino A. Realuyo is the author of the novel The Umbrella Country and the poetry collection The Gods We Worship Live Next Door. His literary works have appeared in The Nation, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Harvard Review, Asymptote, North American Review, ZYZZYVA, New American Writing, The Georgia Review, and The Common. Among his many awards are two NYSCA/New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for fiction and two Queens Council on the Arts Fellowships . He has recently completed three new books: Bataan New Jersey, a literary historical novel, Kiko Rosas’ The F.L.I.P Show, a short story collection, and #TheRebelSonnets, a poetry collection. A graduate of Harvard University, Realuyo works in adult and higher education management and lives in Manhattan with his husband. He is the co-founder of the seminal literary organization The Asian American Writers Workshop. Binoarealuyo.com
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Long Bio
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Life, Work and Education
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A polyglot just like his mother, Bino A. Realuyo was born and raised in Manila, Philippines and was educated in three continents. His father, an architect and engineer, was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and a WWII Japanese concentration camp. Realuyo was born when his father was pushing fifty. His mother, a Chavacana, hailed from Zamboanga in Mindanao, the seat of resistance against Spain and the U.S. for 500 years. He grew up in a mostly all-female household and was raised by strong women, influencing much of his world view and literary works on gender, Queerness, and feminism.
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Realuyo studied International Relations and Latin American Studies at the American University’s School of International Service in Washington, D.C. and Universidad Argentina de la Impresa in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Later in life, with over a decade of experience in education management, he pursued graduate studies in education and non-profit management at Harvard University as a Leadership Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government's Center for Public Leadership.
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The 90s was especially memorable for Realuyo as the decade seeded his political activism and launched a second life in literature. A year after he graduated from college and six years after his family immigrated to the New York, he co-founded the seminal organization, The Asian American Writers Workshop. While organizing with young AAWW writers, he was also very active in the Queer community. He co-founded Kambal sa Lusog, a Filipino Queer organization in NYC.
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He is passionate about social justice and organizing, and has dedicated the past 30 years of his work life to adult education in marginalized and low-income communities in NYC, mixing Freirian theory and practice in real-life spaces. He grew up in Manila where jobs were scarce and opportunities low. Having a full-time job has always been a blessing for him, bringing him balance in the fast-paced NYC life. He has many circles of friends from all his jobs, whom he consider his American gifts. Economic stability from his FT management work has allowed him to explore a new city and country every year with his husband. Realuyo also believes his day work influences much of his prose. On weekends and holidays, he wrote religiously. Toward the end of the pandemic, he went to a coffee shop every day for three years before starting his full-time work and wrote a literary historical novel titled, Bataan New Jersey. He chronicled his writing voyage on his Facebook page.
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Books and Literary Journal Publications
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Fourteen years after his immigration to NYC, he published his first book, the novel The Umbrella Country (1999). The San Francisco Chronicle called The Umbrella Country as a “significant contribution to Filipino-American literature.” His poetry collection The Gods We Worship Live Next Door (2005) won an Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry and its Philippine version received the 2009 Philippine National Book Award. Judge Grace Schulman described Realuyo’s work as “passionate without a trace of sentimentality.”
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He edited The NuyorAsian Anthology: Asian American Writings About New York City (1999), which mapped Asian American life in New York City, from the works by poet Jose Garcia Villa in the 1930s and the birth of the Asian-American literary and political movement in the 1970s to more contemporary voices; and the special Filipino and Filipino-American issue of The Literary Review, "Am Here: Contemporary Filipino Writings in English” (2000).
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He has published literary works in literary journals and magazines such as The Nation, The Kenyon Review, The Literary Review, Asymptote, New Letters, Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, Mid-American, Review, Puerto del Sol, Borderlands, The Asian Pacific American Journal, Norton Anthology Language for a New Century, Fire in the Soul: 100 Poems for Human Rights, and most recently in The Georgia Review, The Harvard Review, ZYZZYVA, North American Review, The Missouri Review, New American Writing, Painted Bride Quarterly, Salamander, Another Chicago Magazine, and The Common.
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New Manuscripts
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He has recently completed three new books: Bataan New Jersey, a literary historical novel, Kiko Rosas’ The F.L.I.P Show, a short story collection, and #TheRebelSonnets, a poetry collection. He is currently looking for literary representation for his works.
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​Awards and Presentations
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Realuyo has been graciously honored with two fellowships in fiction from NYSCA/New York Foundation for the Arts, Valparaiso Fellowship for fiction, Urban Artists Grant for fiction, two Queens Council on the Arts for poetry and fiction, Yaddo Fellowship for poetry, Van Lier Fellowship for poetry, Asian American Writer’s Workshop “Member’s Choice” Literary Award for The Umbrella Country, a Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, and a 2009 Philippine National Book Award for The Gods We Worship Live Next Door.
Although he works outside the literary and MFA systems, he has been invited to universities and has lectured across the country and abroad, including Borough of Manhattan Community College; NY, Hunter College, NY; University of Miami, FL; Fordham University, NY; SUNY Buffalo, NY; Fairleigh Dickinson University, Morristown, NJ; Barnard College, Columbia University, NY; Boston College, Boston, MA; A/P/A Studies Institute, New York University; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; University of California, Riverside, CA; Hampshire College, NH; University of Chicago, IL; University of California, Berkeley, CA; Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA; and the University of the Philippines, Diliman, the Philippines.
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About Bino A. Realuyo on the Net
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Academy of American Poets Poet of the Day
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Broadway's first Asian American Hamilton, Marc de la Cruz reads Bino A. Realuyo's DEAR BLOOD
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Two Cities Review Editors discuss the Rebel Sonnet Oyate Tamakoce on their podcast.
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​​6 Male Poets Who Are Not Afraid to Write About Feminism
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​The radical joy of queer Asian community: A photo love letter
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"The recent Thomasian Alumni Award recognition of Mocha Uson, a known propagandist and “purveyor of fake news” at a time when Freedom of the Press is under attack in the Philippines is an insult to all UST Alumni who believe in upholding one of the pillars of strong democracies—VERITAS," US-based Bino A. Realuyo, author of the novel "The Umbrella Country", said in a statement.​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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​​​​Fil-Am novelist and UST alumnus calls award to Mocha Uson ‘an insult’ to alumni
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Acclaimed Author Bino Realuyo Returns His Award to Make a Point About Mocha Uson
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Lawmaker to return award in protest of Mocha Uson’s recognition
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Palace: Mocha Uson’s UST alumni award validates her appointment in gov’t
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Interview with Author and Organizer of Sunday Salon, Nita Noveno
Interview with the late Derek Kalger for PifMagazine
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List of articles in the Huffington Poets from 2015-2017
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PositivelyFilipino Editor Monalisa Yuchengco's List of Fil-Ams among the Remarkable and Famous
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Finding the Face of Asian New York
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Helping Asian Americans into Print
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U2 is set to play Manila — Bulacan, actually — on Wednesday, December 11, and the band is set to use Fil-Am poet and novelist Bino A. Realuyo's poem about Filipino maids in Europe, “Filipineza.”
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Articles about the Poem "Filipineza" in U-2's first ever concert in the Philippines.
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Rappler: Fil-Am poet Bino Realuyo’s work to be featured in U2’s first Philippine concert
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GMA Network: U2’s Manila concert to feature Fil-Am writer’s poem ‘Filipineza’
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When in Manila: U2 To Feature Filipino Poet Bino Realuyo’s Work In First Philippine Concert
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Wikipedia: The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019
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Inquirer: U2’s Manila concert to feature novelist Bino Realuyo’s poem
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Tayo News--video: U2's Manila Concert Features Fil-Am's Poem | TAYO News Wrap
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U2Songs: Where Poets Speak their Hearts: The Joshua Tree Tour 2019
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PreviewPH: All the Filipino Women U2 Honored During Their "Ultraviolet" Performance​​​
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