GILBERT LUIS R. CENTINA III, OSA

Neguri, Spain

GILBERT LUIS R. CENTINA III, OSA

Neguri, Spain

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Filipino American poet, fictionist and essayist Gilbert Luis R. Centina III, a member of the religious Order of St. Augustine, is a leading Christian voice in contemporary literature. Shortly after entering the Augustinian Convent in historic Intramuros, Manila, he studied at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila's royal and pontifical university, where he obtained his ecclesiastical degrees (BA, PhB, STB, and STL, all cum laude). He earned his MA in comparative literature from the University of the Philippines and pursued a PhD in comparative literature without completing his dissertation. Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, he briefly served as a missionary in Peru.

He is the author of five poetry collections: Getxo and Other Poems, Triptych and Collected Poems, Somewhen, Glass of Liquid Truths and Our Hidden Galaxette. His first novel, Wages of Sin, a roman a clef written under a nom de guerre, was published in Honolulu in 1988. Rubrics and Runes, published in June 2013, is his second novel. It tells the story of a friar caught in the maelstrom of conventual and secular politics when the two supposedly incongruous worlds collide.

Respected for his poerty, his works have been widely anthologized in high school and college textbooks on Philippine literature in English. He also writes in Spanish and in two Philippine languages, Hiligaynon and Tagalog. From the Asian Catholic Publishers and the Archdiocese of Manila under Jaime Cardinal Sin, he received the Catholic Authors Award in 1996.

For many years, he served as a school chaplain and as a pastor of a Manhattan parish church, and along the way wrote hundreds of newspaper columns and articles and contributed poems and short fiction to journals and magazines.

A well-traveled writer, he has visited many places in Europe and in Asia, including Tibet. As an Augustinian friar, he has worked and lived in North and South America. He currently lives and works in Spain.

  • Work
    • Augustinian religious priest, book author
  • Education
    • Master of Arts in Comparative Literature