Gilbert Luis R. Centina III Biography

Author Gilbert Luis R. Centina III of Belleville, New Jersey is a leading Christian voice in contemporary literature. He entered the Augustinian Monastery in Manila and studied at the University of Santo Tomas, the Philippines' royal and pontifical university, where he obtained his ecclesiastical degrees: BA classical, Ph.B., STB, and STL, all cum laude. He earned his M.A. in comparative literature from the University of the Philippines and pursued a Ph.D. in comparative literature without completing his dissertation. After his ordination to the priesthood, he briefly served as a missionary in Peru.

He taught literature as a professorial lecturer and for many years served as a school chaplain and as a pastor of a Manhattan parish church. Along the way, he edited books, a magazine and a journal, wrote hundreds of newspaper columns and contributed articles and fiction to magazines and journals.

Somewhen is his third poetry collection. His previous poetry anthologies are Our Hidden Galaxette and Glass of Liquid Truths. His works have been included in Philippine high school and college textbooks. Besides English, he also writes in Spanish and in two Philippine languages, Hiligaynon and Tagalog. From the Asian Catholic Publishers and the Archdiocese of Manila under Jaime Cardinal Sin, he received the Catholic Authors Award in 1996.

A well-traveled writer, he has visited many places in Europe and in Asia, including Tibet. As an Augustinian friar, he has worked and lived in North and South America. He currently works and lives in Spain but he calls Belleville, New Jersey, U.S.A. home.