Poet, novelist, and community organizer Bino A. Realuyo was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He has earned degrees from American University, Universidad Argentina de La Empresa, and Harvard University. He is the author of the novel The Umbrella Country (1999) and the poetry collection The Gods We Worship Live Next Door (2006), which won an Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry. Judge Grace Schulman described Realuyo’s work as “passionate without a trace of sentimentality.” Realuyo’s honors and awards include a Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America and a 2009 Philippine National Book Award. He lives in New York City, where he has worked as an adult educator and community organizer in underserved communities.