Miguel Syjuco (b. November 17, 1976) is a Filipino writer from Manila and the grand prize winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his first novel Ilustrado. Read full biography of Miguel Syjuco →
Postmodernism was a reaction to modernism. Where modernism was about objectivity, postmodernism was about subjectivity. Where modernism sought a... →
When you live in the Philippines or a country like that, you develop something of a very thick skin because you're confronted every day with all... →
The immigrant experience in 'Ilustrado' was only a small part of what I intended to be a broader look at the Filipino experience, even if... →
The Miguel Syjuco character is not me. I wanted him to represent my own fears and frustrations and guilt, my own worst tendencies and my optimistic... →
I've learned that I have to be happy with creating discussion and debate and that I shouldn't be trying to write a book that appeals to the... →
'Illustrado' is not an autobiography. Only the ideas are autobiographical; the ideas of bitterness, frustration, unchanging society, an... →
Fiction is a very powerful tool for teaching history. The Philippines was the first Iraq, the first Vietnam, the first Afghanistan, in the sense that... →
I have to believe that literature can effect change; otherwise, I would have no purpose in my life and would have wasted four years on... →
I surprise myself that I'm not dead in the gutter somewhere, surprised that I haven't given up.
I treat my writing like a day job, like my main job, even if for many years I was doing other jobs to pay the bills. I worked as a copy editor. I was... →
I don't see myself as any different from all the other Filipinos who have gone abroad looking for opportunity, to be a nurse, a labourer, a maid... →
I don't believe in nationalism. I think it's a bunch of slogans. It's a bunch of poor attempts at creating pride. My problem with... →
I studied in New York. I fell in love with an Australian-born, half-Filipina girl. So we moved to Australia when she went to her university and I... →
Miguel Syjuco (b. November 17, 1976) is a Filipino writer from Manila and the grand prize winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his first novel Ilustrado.