Ramon Guillermo is a Filipino novelist, translator, poet,[1] activist,[2] and academic in the field of Southeast Asian Studies.
Guillermo taught for many years at the UP Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature before transferring to the Center for International Studies at UP Diliman.
The plot of this work of historical fiction revolves around the game of sungka or Southeast Asian mancala.
The novel was reviewed by scholar Caroline Hau, noting how Guillermo has "breached the 'great divide' between ilustrados and 'the masses' that haunts Philippine literature.
"[1] He is known for his academic writings which include studies on Southeast Asian radical intellectual history, critiques of the Pantayong Pananaw school of Zeus A. Salazar,[6] various works on Jose Rizal,[7] and studies on Philippine indigenous writing systems which include the Tagalog script called baybayin.