Oscar Peñaranda was born in Barugo, Leyte and left for Manila at the age of five and as he turned 12, left Manila for Vancouver, Canada and then at 17 moved on to San Francisco, California where he has more or less stayed for the last 55 years. His stories and poems and essays have been anthologized both nationally (in the U.S.) and internationally. In 1980, his play Followers of the Seasons was performed by the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco. He is the author of Full Deck, Jokers Playing, a collection of poems (T’boli Press, San Francisco, 2004) and Seasons by the Bay (T’boli, 2004). a novel in stories. Seasons by the Bay won the best fiction for 2004 for the Global Filipino Literary Award, an organization based in Singapore, Paris, and Washington, D.C. It also won an award for best fiction for PAWA (Philippine American Writers and Artists) for 2005 and Full Deck won the Poetry category. He has been an educator for 40 years and has taught In Universities and Colleges for 15 years, in Middle School for 10 years and High School for 15 years. He has taught, influenced, and inspired several generations of Filipinos, Filipino Americans, as well as non-Filipinos, students, educators, and the general public. He has advocated for Philippine and Philippine American Studies all throughout the United States and Canada. He has given lectures presentations and workshops all over the U.S. from Stanford, to New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Harvard and many others. In 2012, he was a recipient of the most prestigious award Gawad ng Alagad ni Balagtas by the Writers Guild of the Philippines (Unyon ng Mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas, UMPIL) for his lifetime achievements in promoting and pioneering the institutionalization of Philippine Studies, Philippine-American Studies, and Philippine Languages Studies in the United States, becoming perhaps the first person who was not residing in the Philippines to be given such an honor. He is also a Trustee of the Filipino American National Historical Society, being a founder and first president of the San Francisco chapter. He remains active in the cultural, literary, and educational promotions and exchanges of Philippine and Philippine American events.
He earned his B.A. degree in Literature and his M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University where he became part of the struggle to establish Ethnic Studies in the schools. In the summers, Oscar Peñaranda held many odd jobs including hotel help in Las Vegas. He was there when Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) won the Heavyweight Championship of the world. He also worked in the fields of California picking all sort of fruits, and worked in Alaskan fishing canneries for 15 consecutive summers, (vowing each year never to return). Some of his farm worker colleagues joined him in Alaska. His work clothes and gear are probably still there waiting for him.
Mr. Peñaranda visits the Philippines as much as time and money can afford him, his stay being longer and longer each time. He hopes to contribute more and more of his time and talents and efforts to the Philippines coming full circle to the place where he was born and nurtured as a child, glad and grateful for the fact that he has now the time to give back to the people and the place that gave him so much.