Kerima Polotan Tuvera

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Kerima Polotan Tuvera was born in Jolo, Sulu on December 16, 1925. Her father was an army colonel, and her mother taught home economics. Because of her father's frequent transfers in assignment, she lived in various places and studied in the public schools of Pangasinan, Tarlac, Laguna, Nueva Ecija and Rizal. She graduated from the Far Eastern University Girls' High School. In 1944 she enrolled in the University of the Philippines School of Nursing. In 1945 she shifted to Arellano University where she attended the writing classes of Teodoro M. Locsin and edited the first number of the Arellano Literary Review. Her education has been repeatedly interrupted by illness, financial difficulties and later marriage and the care of children of which she has ten. She is a prolific writer. Some of her stories have been published under the pseudonym of "Patricia S. Torres". Mrs. Tuvera has taught in Albay High School and at Arellano University. She has also worked with Your Magazine, This Week and the Junior Red Cross Magazine. Recently she went to the United States on a Department of State Specialist Grant. In 1952 her short story "The Virgin" won two first prizes - the Free Press short story prize of Php1,000 and the Palanca Memorial Award. In 1957 she edited the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, a book containing English and Tagalog prize winning short stories from 1950 to 1955. Her novel The Hand of the Enemy (1962) won the Stonehill Award of Php10,000 for the Filipino novel in English. Some of her famous short stories are : "A Place to Live In" , "Gate" , "The Keeper" and "The Sounds of Sunday". "Adventures in a Forgotten Country is her latest collection of essays. She is the editor of Focus Philippines, the Orient News and the Evening Post.