Bienvenido Lumbera is a prizewinning poet, critic and dramatist from the Philippines.
He is a National Artist of the Philippines and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communications. He won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Awards from the National Book Foundation, and the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards.
At the height of Martial Law, Lumbera had taken on other creative projects. He began writing librettos for musical theater. Initially, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) requested him to create a musical based on Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart. Eventually, Lumbera created several highly-acclaimed musical dramas such as Tales of the Manuvu; Rama, Hari; Nasa Puso ang Amerika; Bayani; Noli me Tangere: The Musical; and Hibik at Himagsik Nina Victoria Laktaw. Sa Sariling Bayan: Apat na Dulang May Musika, an anthology of Lumbera's musical dramas, was published by De La Salle University-Manila Press in 2004. Lumbera authored numerous books, anthologies and textbooks such as: Revaluation; Pedagogy; Philippine Literature: A History and Anthology; Rediscovery: Essays in Philippine Life and Culture; Filipinos Writing: Philippine Literature from the Regions; and Paano Magbasa ng Panitikang Filipino: Mga Babasahing Pangkolehiyo.
Lumbera is now widely acknowledged as one of the pillars of contemporary Philippine literature, cultural studies and film, having written and edited numerous books on literary history, literary criticism, and film. He also received several awards citing his contribution to Philippine letters, most notably the 1975 Palanca Award for Literature; the 1993 Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts; several National Book Awards from the Manila Critics Circle; the 1998 Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for Drama; and the 1999 Cultural Center of the Philippines Centennial Honors for the Arts. He is currently the editor of Sanghaya (National Commission on Culture and the Arts), Professor at the Department of English in the School of Humanities of the Ateneo de Manila University, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, College of Arts and Letters, U.P. Diliman, and Professor of Literature at De La Salle University-Manila. For a time, he also served as president of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), a national organization of more than 40,000 teachers and employees in the education sector.