Rene Boy E. Abiva is an educator, former political detainee, and an award-winning writer of poems and short stories in Ilokano and Filipino.
In 2012, Abiva — then an employee of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and an organizer of the ACT Teachers Party-list in Cagayan — was arrested and detained at the Ifugao District Jail until the murder charges filed against him by the military were dismissed in 2017. The poems in his collections Tuligsa and Agaw Agimat were written during his detention; he is also among the contributors in Hulagpos, an anthology of poetry from political prisoners published by the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto.
His poems have been recognized in Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA)’s Premyong LIRA and the Saniata Prize. They have also appeared in various magazines and publications such as Liwayway Bannawag, the Philippine Collegian, as well as alternative media outfits Pinoy Weekly, Bulatlat, Northern Dispatch Weekly, Manila Today, and Kodao, among others.
He was a fellow in several creative writing workshops — among them the Palihang Rogelio Sicat 11 and the 6th Cordillera Creative Writing Workshop in 2018, and the 58th University of the Philippines (UP) National Writers Workshop in 2019.
He is also a member several literary organizations and art collectives such as LIRA, the Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano iti Filipinas, the Philippine Center of International PEN, the Kilometer 64 Writers’ Collective, and the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, and the founder of the writers group Samahang Lazaro Francisco in honor of the social realist tradition of the late National Artist for Literature Lazaro “Ka Saro” Francisco.
Abiva finished his undergraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and is currently taking his Master of Arts in Malikhaing Pagsulat degree at UP Diliman.
In 2012, Abiva — then an employee of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and an organizer of the ACT Teachers Party-list in Cagayan — was arrested and detained at the Ifugao District Jail until the murder charges filed against him by the military were dismissed in 2017. The poems in his collections Tuligsa and Agaw Agimat were written during his detention; he is also among the contributors in Hulagpos, an anthology of poetry from political prisoners published by the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto.
His poems have been recognized in Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA)’s Premyong LIRA and the Saniata Prize. They have also appeared in various magazines and publications such as Liwayway Bannawag, the Philippine Collegian, as well as alternative media outfits Pinoy Weekly, Bulatlat, Northern Dispatch Weekly, Manila Today, and Kodao, among others.
He was a fellow in several creative writing workshops — among them the Palihang Rogelio Sicat 11 and the 6th Cordillera Creative Writing Workshop in 2018, and the 58th University of the Philippines (UP) National Writers Workshop in 2019.
He is also a member several literary organizations and art collectives such as LIRA, the Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano iti Filipinas, the Philippine Center of International PEN, the Kilometer 64 Writers’ Collective, and the Concerned Artists of the Philippines, and the founder of the writers group Samahang Lazaro Francisco in honor of the social realist tradition of the late National Artist for Literature Lazaro “Ka Saro” Francisco.
Abiva finished his undergraduate studies at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and is currently taking his Master of Arts in Malikhaing Pagsulat degree at UP Diliman.