
Kristine Ong Muslim (b. September 18, 1980) is the author of nine books of fiction and poetry, including The Drone Outside (Eibonvale Press, 2017), Black Arcadia (University of the Philippines Press, 2017), Meditations of a Beast (Cornerstone Press, 2016), Butterfly Dream (Snuggly Books, 2016), Age of Blight (Unnamed Press, 2016), and Lifeboat (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2015). We Bury the Landscape, her collection of ekphrastic microfictions and prose poems, was republished by the University of the Philippines Press in 2020.
She won a 2023 PEN-Heim grant for her translation of Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III’s novel, Book of the Damned, and is the translator of at least nine books by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles, Marlon Hacla, and Rogelio Braga. Her recently published translations include Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles’s Hollow (Fernwood Press, 2022), Pesoa (Balangay Books, 2021), Twelve Clay Birds: Selected Poems (University of the Philippines Press, 2021), and the Poetry Book Society-recommended Three Books (Broken Sleep Books, 2020); Marlon Hacla’s Glossolalia (Ugly Duckling Presse, forthcoming 2023), There Are Angels Walking the Fields (Broken Sleep Books, 2021), and Melismas (Oomph Press, 2020); and Rogelio Braga’s story collection Is There Rush Hour in a Third World Country? (the 87 Press, 2022) and novel Colon (forthcoming from the 87 Press).
She edited with Nalo Hopkinson the British Fantasy Award-winning anthology People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! (2016); Sigwa: Climate Fiction Anthology from the Philippines (Polytechnic University of the Philippines Press, 2021) with Paolo Enrico Melendez; Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines (Gaudy Boy, 2021) and Signos: Anthology of 21st Century Filipino Fiction on Dark Lore and the Supernatural (forthcoming from Radix Media) with Tilde Acuña, John Bengan, Daryll Delgado, and Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III; Lagunlón: Anthology of 21st Century Filipino Crime and Mystery Fiction (forthcoming from Running Wild Press) with Tilde Acuña, Daryll Delgado, and Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III; and Iláwud: Best Contemporary Poems in Translation from the Philippines (forthcoming from Gaudy Boy) and Destination: SEA 2050 A.D. (Penguin Random House SEA, 2022) with Tilde Acuña and Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III.
With Gutierrez Mangansakan II, she edits the Bangsamoro Literary Review. An editor for the poetry section of the now-defunct LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, she also guest-edited literary folios for Anomaly and Loch Raven Review, as well as a special issue with Kristian Sendon Cordero for Words Without Borders.
Widely anthologized, Muslim’s short stories were published in Conjunctions, Dazed, and World Literature Today and translated into Bulgarian, Czech, German, Japanese, Polish, Serbian, and soon into Spanish. She lives in a small farmhouse in Sitio Magutay, a remote rural highland area in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.
Recent Press, Appearances, and Interviews
She won a 2023 PEN-Heim grant for her translation of Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III’s novel, Book of the Damned, and is the translator of at least nine books by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles, Marlon Hacla, and Rogelio Braga. Her recently published translations include Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles’s Hollow (Fernwood Press, 2022), Pesoa (Balangay Books, 2021), Twelve Clay Birds: Selected Poems (University of the Philippines Press, 2021), and the Poetry Book Society-recommended Three Books (Broken Sleep Books, 2020); Marlon Hacla’s Glossolalia (Ugly Duckling Presse, forthcoming 2023), There Are Angels Walking the Fields (Broken Sleep Books, 2021), and Melismas (Oomph Press, 2020); and Rogelio Braga’s story collection Is There Rush Hour in a Third World Country? (the 87 Press, 2022) and novel Colon (forthcoming from the 87 Press).
She edited with Nalo Hopkinson the British Fantasy Award-winning anthology People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! (2016); Sigwa: Climate Fiction Anthology from the Philippines (Polytechnic University of the Philippines Press, 2021) with Paolo Enrico Melendez; Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation from the Philippines (Gaudy Boy, 2021) and Signos: Anthology of 21st Century Filipino Fiction on Dark Lore and the Supernatural (forthcoming from Radix Media) with Tilde Acuña, John Bengan, Daryll Delgado, and Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III; Lagunlón: Anthology of 21st Century Filipino Crime and Mystery Fiction (forthcoming from Running Wild Press) with Tilde Acuña, Daryll Delgado, and Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III; and Iláwud: Best Contemporary Poems in Translation from the Philippines (forthcoming from Gaudy Boy) and Destination: SEA 2050 A.D. (Penguin Random House SEA, 2022) with Tilde Acuña and Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III.
With Gutierrez Mangansakan II, she edits the Bangsamoro Literary Review. An editor for the poetry section of the now-defunct LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, she also guest-edited literary folios for Anomaly and Loch Raven Review, as well as a special issue with Kristian Sendon Cordero for Words Without Borders.
Widely anthologized, Muslim’s short stories were published in Conjunctions, Dazed, and World Literature Today and translated into Bulgarian, Czech, German, Japanese, Polish, Serbian, and soon into Spanish. She lives in a small farmhouse in Sitio Magutay, a remote rural highland area in the southern Philippine province of Maguindanao.
Recent Press, Appearances, and Interviews
- 9/2023 - Speaker, Words Without Borders and the Academy of American Poets reading panel for World in Verse: An Evening of International Poetry, Brooklyn Book Festival 2023
- 8/2023 - Speaker, Panel discussion with Rio Johan and Fr. Wilmer Tria on “Myth & Translation in Southeast Asian Literature: Perspectives from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia,” moderated by Tito Genova Valiente for the Philippine Book Festival 2023
- 11/2022 - Panel discussion with Kristen Vida Alfaro, Kristian Sendon Cordero, Junley L. Lazaga, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, and Tiffany Tsao on “Translation in Southeast Asia: Practices, Politics, and Prospects,” moderated by Allan Derain for the Kritika Kultura Reading Series of Ateneo de Manila University, National Book Development Board, and Book Institute of the Philippines
- 10/2022 - Panel discussion with Shelley Fairweather-Vega on "Translation as Archipelagic Thinking," moderated by Alta L. Price and organized by Singapore Unbound for the 5th Singapore Literature Festival
- 9/2022 - Guest-edited Philippine literary folio: "Anomaly #35: Contemporary Philippine Literature in Translation"
- 4/2022 - Interview by B.B.P. Hosmillo at The Margins, Asian American Writers' Workshop
- 3/2022 - Included in The Flame "Award-winning Filipina sci-fi writers to read on Women’s Month" by Hazel N. Camba
- 12/2021 - Involved in two books lauded by CNN Philippines: "Our best Filipino books of 2021: ‘Forth,’ ‘Pesoa,’ and ‘Ulirat’"
- 7/2021 - 7/2021 - Guest Speaker, “The Filipino Writer in the Age of Ecological Collapse and the Sixth Extinction,” University of the Philippines - Cebu’s Pundok Katitikan 2021: Creative Writing Lecture series
- 5/2021 - Guest-edited Philippine literary folio: "Anomaly #32 :: Neighbor Species and Shared Futures"
- 4/2021 - Guest-edited Philippine literary folio for Loch Raven Review: "49 Philippine-Language Poets in Translation"
- 3/2021 - Included in Spot.ph "10 Noteworthy Filipina Writers and Their Must-Read Works" by Christa I. De La Cruz
- 12/2020 - Interview by Jacob Richard Bergeron at Rougarou
- 12/2020 - Recommended reads for "Our best Filipino books of 2020" at CNN Philippines
- 10/2020 - Wrote "Six Great Contemporary Philippine Gothic Tales You Can Read Online" for Silent Motorist Media
- 10/2020 - Wrote "Notes on Daryll Delgado’s Post-Ecological Disaster Novel, Remains" for Big Other
- 8/2020 - "Note on Translation" for Marlon Hacla's Melismas featured at The Chattahoochee Review
- 8/2020 - Guest-edited Philippine literary folio: "Anomaly #30 :: Writings by Filipino Women"
- 5/2020 - "Women Writers of Folklore and the Fantastic: Kristine Ong Muslim" by Nina Zumel
- 4/2020 - Age of Blight in Bloomin' Great Books: "7 reads for World Earth Day"
- 12/2019 - CNN Philippines write-up on Sigwa: "The first Filipino climate fiction anthology is coming soon" by Elizabeth Deyro
- 11/2019 - Release of the November 2019 issue of Words without Borders, guest-edited with Kristian Sendon Cordero; Porter Anderson writes about the issue at Publishing Perspectives
- 8/2019 - Contributor Spotlight at Bellingham Review
- 8/2019 - Interview by Christopher Allen for SmokeLong Quarterly's Global Flash Series
- 6/2019 - Included in "Ten Weird Writers to Save Us All in 2019" by the readers of Silent Motorist Media
- 6/2019 - Speaker for the Philippine International Literary Festival 2019 panel on Sigwa: Climate Fiction from the Philippines
- 4/2019 - Age of Blight in Bustle: "The Real Threat Of Climate Change, Explored In 11 Works Of Fiction" by Sadie Trombetta
- 3/2019 - Age of Blight in Bookriot: "Reading Climate Fiction: Aftermaths" by Julia Rittenberg
- 12/2018 - "Boltzmann Brain" in Longreads: "At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side" by Adam Boffa
- 9/2018 - "Holocene: Microfilm Reel 82" nominated by The Cincinnati Review for Best of the Net 2018 (Sundress Publications)
- 5/2018 - Release of Voices on the Waters: Conversations with Five Mindanao Writers (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2018) featuring Ricardo M. de Ungria long-form interviews with Kristine Ong Muslim, Anthony L. Tan, Mehol K. Sadain, Said K. Sadain Jr., and Lina Sagaral Reyes
- 5/2018 - Black Arcadia in CNN Philippines: "Your 2018 summer reading list, as recommended by Filipino authors"
- 4/2018 - "Day of the Builders" in Bustle: "11 Sci-Fi Short Stories You Can Read For Free Right Now" by Charlotte Ahlin
- 4/2018 - Speaker for the Philippine International Literary Festival 2018 panel on "Fiction, Displacement, and Everything in Between"
- 12/2017 - Age of Blight in Electric Literature: "These 8 Books are Fiction, but Climate Change is Not" by Tobias Carroll
- 12/2017 - Recommended reads for "The best Filipino books of 2017" at CNN Philippines
- 12/2017 - Haunted Advent Calendar day 4 guest post at MooreReppion.com
- 8/2017 - "Day of the Builders" in Chicago Review of Books: "The 10 Best Sci-Fi Stories You Can Read Online For Free" by Adam Morgan
- 8/2017 - "12 Esensiyal na Akda sa Panulaan sa Nakaraang 12 Taon" by Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles
- 5/2017 - National Short Story Month guest-post at Emerging Writers Network
- 4/2017 - Write-up for PEN Center USA's Writer's Respond - Climate Change essay series
- 2/2017 - "How places can influence the mind--and vice versa" by David Barnett
- 9/2016 - Interview by Jeff VanderMeer at Weird Fiction Review
- 8/2016 - Interview by William Hoffacker at The Collagist
- 4/2016 - "Across the sea: Philippine speculative fiction reaches Czech Republic" by Aya Tantiangco
- 4/2016 - Interview by Megan Giddings at SmokeLong Quarterly