CCP Encyclopedia Entry for Edgar Calabia Samar

If you don't have access to the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, here's the entry about me written by Jema Pamintuan in 2018 and updated by Louie Jon Sanchez in 2021. I included further updates from the last three years.

Edgar Calabia Samar, also known as Egay Samar, is a poet, fictionist, and teacher. He was born in San Pablo, Laguna on 18 February 1981. He is the eldest child of Efren Cababan Samar and Josie Mendoza Calabia, among three siblings. He graduated class valedictorian, both in elementary and high school, from Liceo de San Pablo (formerly Ateneo de San Pablo) in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Samar earned a bachelor of science in psychology from Ateneo de Manila University in 2002. He finished a master of arts in Filipino literature at Ateneo in 2004, and a doctor of philosophy in Filipino, malikhaing pagsulat (creative writing), at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2011. He is an associate professor of Filipino at the Ateneo de Manila University and served as a visiting associate professor at Osaka University from 2017 to 2022.

As an undergraduate student, he published his Filipino and English poems and short stories regularly in Heights, Ateneo’s literary journal, of which he became Filipino section editor. Eventually, he joined the poetry workshop of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA) in 2001 and served as its president from 2002 to 2003. He was a writer in residence at the 43rd International Writing Program, University of Iowa, in 2010. He is also the founder and editor of Tapat: Journal ng Bagong Nobelang Filipino, which publishes contemporary novels in Filipino, critical essays on Filipino novels, and interviews with Filipino novelists.

Among Samar’s books of poems are Isa Na Namang Pagtingala sa Buwan (Just Another View of the Moon), 2005; Pag-aabang sa Kundiman: Isang Tulambuhay (Waiting at Kundiman: A Biopoetics), 2006, reprinted by Librong LIRA in 2015, with illustrations by R. Jordan Santos; Maskara’t Pambata: Malatulambúhay (Mask and for Children: Pseudobiopoetics) 2017; and Samantalang Sakop at Iniibig: Panibagong Tulambuhay (While Possessed and Beloved: New Biopoetics), 2018.

He also has a collection of stories, Alternatibo sa Alternatibong Mundo: 13 Metakuwento / Malakuwento (Alternatives in an Alternative World: 13 Metafiction/Pseudostories), 2016, and a story for children, Uuwi na ang Nanay Kong si Darna (My Mother Darna si Coming Home), 2002. He also authored 101 Kagila-Gilalas na Nilalang (101 Amazing Creatures), 2015, a book on Philippine underworld mythology. This was updated as Mga Nilalang na Kagila-gilalas in 2019.

Samar’s novel Walong Diwata ng Pagkahulog (Eight Muses of the Fall), 2008, recounts a young man’s struggle with the word and with his muse, and his attempt to use his dreams and memories to rewrite his own history. An English translation by Mikael Co and Sasha Martinez was published in 2013. A complete edition was released by Visprint in 2018. Meanwhile, crime and mystery, local folklore, and local beliefs on cosmology and the supernatural are the subject matter of his second novel, Sa Kasunod ng 909 (One After 909), 2012. Halos Isang Buhay: Ang Manananggal sa Pagsusulat ng Nobela (Almost a Life: The Viscera Sucker in Writing the Novel), 2012, is a critical account of the creative process behind Sa Kasunod ng 909. In 2023, Ateneo University Press published the new editions of the novels together with Teorya ng Unang Panahon (Theory on the Beginning) that completes Samar's Trilohiya ng mga Bílang (Trilogy of Numbers). This last novel

Samar’s most popular work, however, is the Janus Silang series of young adult novels, published by Adarna House, where he explored local underworld mythology, online games, adolescent issues, and parallel universes. The series are as follows: Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon (Janus Silang and the Demon Child of Tabon), 2014, Si Janus Silang at ang Labanang Manananggal-Mambabarang (Janus Silang and the Battle of Self-segmenting Ghouls and Sorcerers), 2015, and Si Janus Sílang at ang Pitumpu’t Pitóng Púsong (Janus Silang and the Seventy-Seven Tricksters), 2017. The series has since found itself being adapted into graphic form by Carljoe Javier, Natasha Rigor, and Mervin Malonzo, and adapted for the stage by Guelan Varela-Luarca for Tanghalang Ateneo in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, ABS-CBN bought its TV adaptation rights.

In 2020, Samar expanded to new platforms on the worldwide web, teaching and publishing on the art of writing fiction through his own digital imprint, Santinakpan, and popular podcasts Mga Teorya ng Pagkahulog (Theories of the Fall) and Anong Kuwento Natin (What's Our Story), which he co-hosts with novelist Glenn Diaz.

Samar received the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for Poetry in Filipino, second prize, 2002; Futuristic Fiction in Filipino, second prize, 2003; Poetry in Filipino, first prize, 2004; and Novel in Filipino, special prize, 2022. He also won the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Writer’s Prize in 2005, Gawad Komisyon sa Tula, 2004, and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People–Salanga Writers’ Prize, 2002.