Mia M. Gonzalez

While her true passion is writing fiction, Mia M. Gonzalez has thrived in journalism, starting her career as a correspondent for the defunct Manila Chronicle.

Mia was a Malacañang reporter for TODAY and BusinessMirror before joining the Rappler team in March 2014. She covered 4 Philippine presidents – Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph E. Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and Benigno S. Aquino III – giving her a full immersion into the ins and outs of governance, policymaking, and Philippine politics.

Mia was a fellow of the Institute for the Further Development of Journalists (FOJO) in Sweden, and of the Foreign Press Center Asia-Pacific Fellowship in Japan. In 2013, she was a recipient of the Gawad Ulat Award conferred by the Philippines’ Department of Social Welfare and Development on journalists who have written extensively on people empowerment.

As a literary writer, Mia has won Palanca Awards for her short fiction. Her first collection of stories, Welostit and Other Stories, was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2004.

Mia’s works are part of several anthologies, including Hoard of Thunder: Philippine Short Stories in English, Volume I 1990 to 2000 (UP Press, 2013), The Children’s Hour: Stories on Childhood Volume II (UP Press, 2007), Dream Noises: A Generation Writes (Anvil, Philippines,1999), and the Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction Series (UP Press, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2002). Her work was also included in Kuřata v hadí kleci (Argo Publishers, 2020), an anthology of modern Philippine short stories translated into Czech.

Mia was a fellow for fiction of the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in Scotland, the National Writers Workshop of the University of the Philippines, and the Silliman University National Writers Workshop.

She obtained her Communication Arts degree from Assumption College, where she graduated cum laude, and her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.