Jose Y. Dalisay Jr. has won numerous awards and prizes for fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction and screenplay. He was born in Romblon, Philippines on January 15, 1954.
He completed his primary education at La Salle Green Hills, Philippines in 1966 and his secondary education at the Philippine Science High School in 1970. He dropped out of college to work as a journalist after a period of imprisonment when Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972. After his release as a political detainee, he also wrote scripts mostly for Lino Brocka, the National Artist of the Philippines for Theater and Film. Dalisay returned to school and earned his B.A. English degree, cum laude from the University of the Philippines in 1984. He later received an M.F.A. from the University of Michigan in 1988 and a Ph.D in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1991 as a Fulbright scholar.
Dalisay has also worked extensively as a professional editor. He served as Executive Editor of the ten-volume Kasaysayan: The Story of the Filipino People (Manila: Asia Publishing/Reader's Digest Asia[1], 1998). His clients have included the Asian Development Bank, the Ayala Foundation, SGV & Co., the National Economic and Development Authority, the Office of the (Philippine) President, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation, among others.