Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo is an acclaimed writer, critic, editor, and teacher.
Born on August 21, 1944 in Manila, Hidalgo attended high school at the St. Paul College Quezon City in 1960. She pursued higher education at the University of Santo Tomas, where she earned her Bachelor of Philosophy degree, with the distinction magna cum laude, in 1964, and Master of Arts in Literature in 1967. She then finished her doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in 1993.
Her husband Antonio’s decision to work with the United Nations Children's Fund from 1975 to 1990 uprooted their family for 15 years as they moved from Thailand, Lebanon, South Korea, Burma (now Myanmar), and the United States. Nevertheless, she continued to teach and write — pioneering works of creative nonfiction with her personal and travel essays. She has published 11 creative nonfiction collections: Sojourns (1984), Korean Sketchbook(1987), Five Years in a Forgotten Land: A Burmese Notebook (1991), I Remember: Travel Essays (1992), Skyscrapers, Celadon and Kimchi: A Korean Notebook (1993), The Path of the Heart (1994), Coming Home (1997), Passages: Travel Essays (2007), Looking for the Philippines: Travel Essays (2009), Travels with Tania (2009), Stella and Other Friendly Guests (2012), and The Things With Feathers: My Book of Memories (2018).
Hidalgo also published two novels, namely Recuerdo (1997) and A Book of Dreams (2001). Her short stories were also collected in Ballad of a Lost Season (1987), Tales for a Rainy Night (1993), Where Only the Moon Rages (1994), Catch a Falling Star (1999), and Sky Blue after the Rain: Selected Stories and Tales (2005). Hidalgo also wrote books of literary criticism and history, as well as definitive textbooks on creative nonfiction in the Philippines: Creative Nonfiction: A Manual for Filipino Writers (2003) and Creative Nonfiction: A Reader (2003).
She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Focus Philippines Literary Contest in 1981, the UP President’s Award for Outstanding Publication, the Graphic Literary Awards, Philippines Free Press Literary Awards, National Book Awards, Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Fiction in English, the Palanca Awards’ Gawad Dangal ng Lahi, and the South East Asian Writers or SEA Write Award, among many others.
Hidalgo currently teaches creative writing and literature courses at the UST Graduate School and at UP Diliman, where she is Professor Emeritus. Throughout the years, she has served as the UP Vice President for Public Affairs, the director of the UST Publishing House, the UP Press, and the Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing, where she is now among its resident fellows. She heads the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies as its director.
Born on August 21, 1944 in Manila, Hidalgo attended high school at the St. Paul College Quezon City in 1960. She pursued higher education at the University of Santo Tomas, where she earned her Bachelor of Philosophy degree, with the distinction magna cum laude, in 1964, and Master of Arts in Literature in 1967. She then finished her doctorate in Comparative Literature from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in 1993.
Her husband Antonio’s decision to work with the United Nations Children's Fund from 1975 to 1990 uprooted their family for 15 years as they moved from Thailand, Lebanon, South Korea, Burma (now Myanmar), and the United States. Nevertheless, she continued to teach and write — pioneering works of creative nonfiction with her personal and travel essays. She has published 11 creative nonfiction collections: Sojourns (1984), Korean Sketchbook(1987), Five Years in a Forgotten Land: A Burmese Notebook (1991), I Remember: Travel Essays (1992), Skyscrapers, Celadon and Kimchi: A Korean Notebook (1993), The Path of the Heart (1994), Coming Home (1997), Passages: Travel Essays (2007), Looking for the Philippines: Travel Essays (2009), Travels with Tania (2009), Stella and Other Friendly Guests (2012), and The Things With Feathers: My Book of Memories (2018).
Hidalgo also published two novels, namely Recuerdo (1997) and A Book of Dreams (2001). Her short stories were also collected in Ballad of a Lost Season (1987), Tales for a Rainy Night (1993), Where Only the Moon Rages (1994), Catch a Falling Star (1999), and Sky Blue after the Rain: Selected Stories and Tales (2005). Hidalgo also wrote books of literary criticism and history, as well as definitive textbooks on creative nonfiction in the Philippines: Creative Nonfiction: A Manual for Filipino Writers (2003) and Creative Nonfiction: A Reader (2003).
She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Focus Philippines Literary Contest in 1981, the UP President’s Award for Outstanding Publication, the Graphic Literary Awards, Philippines Free Press Literary Awards, National Book Awards, Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Fiction in English, the Palanca Awards’ Gawad Dangal ng Lahi, and the South East Asian Writers or SEA Write Award, among many others.
Hidalgo currently teaches creative writing and literature courses at the UST Graduate School and at UP Diliman, where she is Professor Emeritus. Throughout the years, she has served as the UP Vice President for Public Affairs, the director of the UST Publishing House, the UP Press, and the Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing, where she is now among its resident fellows. She heads the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies as its director.