Luna Sicat Cleto is a fictionist, essayist, poet, playwright, scriptwriter, and academic. She has written two novels, Makinilyang Altar (2002), and Mga Prodigal (2010), but she started her writing career as a playwright. Renowned stage director Tony Mabesa directed her one-act play Maternal. She also wrote scripts for the TV programs and wrote short stories anthologized in various collections. She is also editor or co-editor of a number of fiction and nonfiction collections.
Cleto received numerous awards for her writings. In 1987, she won the Gawad CCP para sa Panitikan. In 1990, she garnered the Timpalak Panitik ng Diyaryo Filipino. In 2003, she won Gawad Chanselor and University of the Philippines Presidential Distinction awards for creative work. The next year, her novel Makinilyang Altar won the 2004 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. She has also won numerous awards at the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for children’s stories, poetry and essays.
She was born on January 29, 1967 in Pasig City. She obtained her bachelor of arts in film and audiovisual communication at UP Diliman, where she also finished her degrees in Master of Arts in Filipino (Literature), and Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing in Filipino. She also teaches creative writing and literature at the said university and is a fellow at the Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing.