Randy Ribay is an American writer of middle grade and young adult fiction. Ribay has won the 2019 Freeman Book Award from the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia and was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Awards for Young People's Literature category for his book ''Patron Saints of Nothing''.

Personal life

Born in the Philippines and raised in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

, Ribay was originally an aerospace engineering major arvard News 2020who changed his major to English literature and earned his BA in English literature from the

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

. His master's degree was in language and literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Ribay teaches high school English in San Francisco, CA. He began his writing career by writing poetry but broke into the prose writing scene by participating in Pitch Slam at a Writer's Digest annual conference.

Career

''Patron Saints of Nothing''

Ribay is the author of the award-winning book ''Patron Saints of Nothing'' (2019). Although initially rejected by several editors, the book won the Freeman Award and was short-listed for the National Book Awards for Young People's Literature in 2019. The book was also nominated for the 2020 Edgar Awards chosen by the Mystery Writers of America. ''Patron Saints of Nothing'' appeared on several Best of 2019 lists including those published by NPR, Kirkus, and the New York Public Library The book is a coming-of-age story about Jay Reguero, a Filipino-American boy of high school age. Reguero travels to the Philippines to find out the story behind a cousin killed in an ongoing drug war based on the nonfictional drug war established by Philippines president

Rodrigo Duterte Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson ...

. Once there, he must reevaluate his heritage and his status as a Filipino-American outsider. Ribay considered the book to be dedicated to the "hyphenated", referring to his Filipino-American heritage.

Bibliography

* ''An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes'' (2015) * ''After The Shot Drops'' (2018) * ''Patron Saints of Nothing'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribay, Randy University of Colorado Boulder alumni Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni American male novelists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people