SEAWRITE 2010 (Philippines) and NCCA Ani ng Dangal awardee, her books have won the National Book Awards for poetry, oral history, biography, and art. She received the UMPIL Gawad Pambansang Alagad Balagtas in 2004, Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (City of Manila) in 2005, Outstanding Silliman University alumna for creative writing in 2008, and the 2011 Carlos P. Garcia award for literature from Bohol, her home-island. She is a University Fellow and Professor Emeritus (Literature) of De La Salle University.
