Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr. is a fictionist, essayist, poet, playwright, and scriptwriter. While his prose and poems are in English, he predominantly writes his plays in Filipino. He penned two novels: Killing Time in a Warm Place (1992) and Soledad’s Sister (2008), translated into Italian, Spanish, and French. These were later compiled in In Flight: Two Novels of the Philippines (2011). Dalisay’s short stories and essays can be found in collections like Oldtimer and Other Stories (1985), Sarcophagus and Other Stories (1992), Penmanship and Other Stories (1995), and Selected Stories and Man Overboard: Essays by, for, and of the Smart Filipino Male (2005).
As a poet, he released Pinoy Septych and Other Poems in 2011. Four of his plays were collected in Madilim ang Gabi sa Laot at Iba Pang Dula ng Ligaw na Pag-ibig (1993). He authored The Best of Barfly (1997), a compilation of his column pieces, and The Knowing Is in the Writing: Notes on the Practice of Fiction (2006). Dalisay has also edited numerous anthologies. In 2019, Anvil published Voyager and Other Fictions: The Collected Stories of Jose Dalisay, an anthology featuring 43 of his stories, including “Penmanship,” “Oldtimer,” and “Voyager.” He also contributed scripts for films, such as Lino Brocka’s Ano ang Kulay ng Mukha ng Diyos? (1986).
Dalisay won in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature 16 times awards across various categories and was inducted into the Palanca Hall of Fame in 2000. He garnered prizes at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Literary Contest for his plays and received the Chamberlain Award for Achievement in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, among other honors.
He worked for newspapers and private companies to government offices, international institutions, and universities. He taught literature and creative writing at UP and served as a fellow for fiction at the UP Institute of Creative Writing.
Born on January 15, 1954, in Alcantara, Romblon, Dalisay began his study at La Salle Green Hills and Philippine Science High School before enrolling at the University of the Philippines (UP) in 1970. Despite an initial college dropout to pursue journalism, he completed UP’s graduate diploma program in Development Economics in 1976. Dalisay later earned his bachelor’s degree in English from UP in 1984, followed by a master’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1988. Under a Fulbright-Hays grant, he obtained his doctorate in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1991.