Recognition for his work includes a New York State Council of the Arts grant for film and media [2014], the Cultural Center of the Philippines Independent Film and Video Awards [2004], the Asian American Literary Award and the Alice James Books New York/New England Selection for Zero Gravity [poems, 2000], the New York Foundation for the Arts [fiction, 1998], the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize for My Sad Republic [novel, 1998], the Philippine National Book Award twice for Planet Waves [novel, 1990] and My Sad Republic [2000], and the Asiaweek Short Story Competition [1985].

He has also won the Philippines’ top literary prize, the Palanca Memorial Awards, several times for poetry, fiction, non-fiction and playwriting.

In 2010, his three-act play, Resurrection, was staged off-Broadway at the Clurman Theater on 42nd Street by Diverse City Inc.

He has been in residence at Civitella Ranieri [Italy], Association d’Art de La Napoule [France], Chateau de Lavigny Residence pour Ecrivains [Switzerland], Fundacion Valparaiso [Spain], The Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio [Italy], Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers [Scotland], and The Corporation of Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ledig House International Writers Colony [US].

Publications Poetry—Amigo Warfare [Cherry Grove Collections, Cincinnati OH, 2007], Zero Gravity [Alice James Books, Farmington ME, 1999]; Lyrics from a Dead Language [Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1991] Novels—The Descartes Highlands [Akashic Books, 2014]; My Sad Republic [University of the Philippines Press, 2000]; Empire of Memory, Confessions of a Volcano [both Anvil Publishers, Manila, 1992, 1990]; Planet Waves [New Day, Manila, 1989] Short fiction—People Are Strange Black Lawrence Press, New York, 2012]; Peripheral Vision [New Day, 1992] Anthology—Flippin': Filipinos on America [Asian American Writers Workshop, New York, 1996] His stories have been published in Harper's Magazine and anthologized in Manila Noir [Akashic Books]; Charlie Chan is Dead 2: At Home in the World [Penguin]; The Thirdest World [factory school]; Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing [Rutgers University Press]; Juncture: New Experimental Writing [Soft Skull]; In My Life: Encounters with the Beatles [Fromm International]; Balikbayan: Racconti filippini contemporanei [Feltrinelli, Milan].