Renee is originally from Manila, Philippines, and now lives in California.  She received her bachelor of arts in English from UC Berkeley and master of fine arts in English and Creative Writing from Mills College. 

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Renee was the keynote speaker for the 43rd Annual United Pilipinos of Alameda Filipino Ancestry Awards for outstanding students, the 2019 Melody Clarke Teppola Creative Writing Prize fiction judge, and a 2020 Louise Meriwether Prize reader. She was selected as a 35 Over 35 debut author for her novel, The Hour of Daydreams, which won an Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Finalist award, Foreword INDIES Gold, and Powell's Top Five Staff Pick. She is also the author of the children's books One Hundred Percent Me (May 2022) and Buckley the Highland Cow & Ralphy the Goat, with The ABCs of Asian American History releasing in 2023.

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Her articles on arts and culture, parenting, and lifestyle have appeared in Colorlines, Haute Living Magazine, Oakland and Alameda Magazine, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The East Bay Monthly, The Children’s Advocate, Parents’ Press, Red Tricycle, The FilAm, and others. Her reporting on minority issues facing Filipinos was nominated for a New American Media Award and New California Media Award by the editors of Filipinas Magazine.

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Her fiction and creative nonfiction can be found in The Tishman Review, Red Earth Review, The Margins, 580 Split, Mutha Magazine, Women Writers Women's Books, The Ford City Anthology, Literary Hub, Necessary Fiction, Maganda Magazine, TAYO Literary Magazine, The Timberline Review, Mabuhay, and others.

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You can find Renee hiking throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. She works as a Senior Managing Editor for Ulysses Press.   

-Contact Renee-

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