Filipino-Australian writer, performer, and academic Merlinda Bobis has published three novels, a collection of short stories, five poetry books, a monograph on creative research, and scholarly essays on creative-critical production, militarism, migration, and the transnational imaginary. Her various awards include the Prix Italia, the Australian Writers’ Guild Award, the Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, the Philippine National Book Award, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, and the Gawad Balagtas. Her poetry book ‘Summer was a Fast Train without Terminals’ was short-listed for ‘The Age’ Poetry Book Award, and her novel ‘Banana Heart Summer’, for the Australian Literature Society Gold Medal. Her novel ‘Fish-Hair Woman’, which received Australia’s 2013 Most Underrated Book Award, was adapted into a play by the Harlequin Theatre Company. Her own plays have been performed/produced in the Philippines, Australia, US, Spain, Canada, France, China, Singapore, Thailand, and the Slovak Republic. Bobis teaches Creative Writing at University of Wollongong, Australia. http://www.merlindabobis.com.au
