Literary Genius Mario Ignacio Miclat Dies
Poet, essayist, fiction writer, an expert & translator in China Studies, Mario was born on the 12th of September 1949 in Marikina.
He obtained his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
At the height of student activism in the 70’s Mario and wife Alma Cruz Miclat, along with other student activists, moved from Manila to Beijing, China, right before the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the prelude to martial law.
In the midst of China’s Great Cultural Revolution, they served as foreign contributors at Radio Peking, which aired a 30-minute program in Filipino aired and transmitted to the Philippines.
Daughters, Maningning (who died in 2000) and Banaue, were born in China.
In 1986, after the EDSA Revolution, the Miclats returned to the Philippines.
Mario then served as dean of the University of the Philippines Asian Center, and retired as full professor and associate of Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing, served as director of the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino of the UP System from 1996 to 2001, and was head of the National Committee on Language and Translation of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts.
His books include a volume of children’s stories, Mga Kuwento ng Kabayanihan in 1988 — a short story collection, Pinoy Odyssey: Stories & Kuwentos (1989) relaunched as Pinoy Odyssey 2049 in (2005) a biography, Beyond the Great Wall: A Family Journal (2006) co-authored with wife Alma and daughters Maningning and Banaue, which won the National Book Award; and the novel Secrets of the Eighteen Mansions 2010, which was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
He produced Ang Tala, Mga Panaginip, at Bulaklak sa Libingan ng Daga, a book of translation of science fiction by Arthur C. Clarke, Alan Lightman, and Daniel Keyes and “Ang Taong Yungib ng Peking” translated from the Chinese original of Cao Yu’s play.
His literary works have won the Asiaweek Short Story Competition, Gawad CCP, and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards. He was a UP CWC National Fellow for Translations in 1995-1996, a recipient of the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for fiction in English and Filipino, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan of the City of Manila, the UP Centennial Professorial Chair Award, UP Press Centennial Publications Award, and the Kampeon ng Wika Award from the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.
Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. once described him as an “accomplished essayist and fiction writer, whose skill and craftsmanship have created stories of remarkable sharpness and poignancy in both English and Filipino, and whose extraordinary insights into culture, politics, history, literature and the human condition have enriched local and international discourse on nation and imagination.”
