Allan Pastrana

Allan Justo Pastrana holds a Master's degree in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He finished his Bachelor's degree at the University of Santo Tomas Conservatory of Music (Music Literature and Piano Performance). He is a two-time Thomasian Poet of the Year and a recipient of the Rector's Literary Award during his college days. He bagged the Grand Prize in the English Division of the Maningning Miclat Award for Poetry in 2005 and won for the Essay in the 2007 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards. His first book of poems is Body Haul (UST Publishing House, 2011), which won the 2013 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. Some of his newer poems appear in a three-poet volume published in 2015 by the Vagabond Press as part of their Asia Pacific Poetry Series. Pastrana teaches Music at the Ateneo de Manila University. He occasionally writes music reviews for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.