E.J. DEGALE

Elaine Joy Edaya Degale is a Black-Filipina writer who spends her time between New York City and the Philippines. She's taught English composition courses in community colleges in New York City, and is currently writing a semi-autobiographical novel called Sunflower. In the 2024 Asian American Film Lab's 72-hour Shootout, she wrote the short film "Dreamweavers", which garnered two recognition awards, including "Best Screenwriting." She's been longlisted for the 2024 African Diaspora Award in The Kinsman Quarterly Review, and her entry will appear in the publication's 2025 anthology titled "Black Butterfly: Voices of the African Diaspora". She is the founder of a community-based organization in the Philippines called OperationMerienda.org, which facilitates literacy and food programming efforts in indigenous communities throughout Mindanao, Philippines. She has been a panelist and speaker at numerous international conferences to speak on her humanitarian work and philanthropic research, and has received numerous recognition awards from the Philippine Department of Education for spearheading youth programs in public schools. Her work has appeared in Positively Filipino, Airplane Reading, and elsewhere. She graduated with honors as a Frances Perkins scholar at Mount Holyoke College, where she studied International Relations and Development. She has an M.A. and an Ed.M. in Higher Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.