Edilberto K. Tiempo

Who was Edilberto K. Tiempo?

Edilberto Kaindong Tiempo, also known as E.K. Tiempo, was a Filipino writer and professor. He and his wife, Edith L. Tiempo, are credited by Silliman University with establishing "a tradition in excellence in creative writing and the teaching of literacy craft which continues to this day" at that university. During his tenure there, he was department chair, graduate school dean, vice-president for academic affairs, and writer-in-residence.

As a Guggenheim writing fellow in 1955, he submitted a collection of short stories, "A Stream at Dalton Pass and Other Stories," for his Ph.D. in English at the University of Denver. This collection won a prize at the same time that his second novel, "More Than Conquerors" won the first prize for the novel.

Tiempo and his wife studied with Paul Engle in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, graduating in 1962; their experience there inspired them to found the Silliman National Writers Workshop, the first in Asia, which has been in operation since then.

Tiempo was also a Rockefeller fellow. In addition to his career at Silliman, Tiempo taught fiction and literary criticism for four years in two American schools during the 1960s.