Ricardo "Ricky" Monreal De Ungria (born 1951) is a Filipino poet.
Early life and education De Ungria was born in 1951 and raised in Paco, Manila. He did spoken word poetry and performed in a rock band in the 1970s. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree cum laude in Literature from the De La Salle University. In 1990, while on a Fulbright Scholarship in the United States, he was awarded an MFA in creative writing from Washington University in St. Louis. He received writing residency fellowships at the Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in 1991 and the Bellagio Study of Conference Center in 1993.
Career In 1999, he moved to Davao City to become the first dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of the newly established University of the Philippines Mindanao campus. In the same year, he founded the Davao Writers Guild, which publishes the works of its members; holds poetry readings; and hosts the Davao Writing Workshops, which started in 2005. The Guild has been publishing Cebuano, Filipino, Davaoeño, Karay-a, and English works in the literary journal Dagmay since 2001. In 2006, they began publishing a monthly literary supplement in SunStar Davao. While serving as Chancellor of UP Mindanao (2001-2007), he also organized the Davao Colleges and Universities Network (DACUN) in 2001 and the Mindanao Studies Consortium Foundation, Inc. (MSCFI) in 2003, both being a consortium of universities in the Davao and Mindanao regions, respectively. In 2004, he also organized the Mindanao Science and Technology Park Consortium Foundation, Inc. that was a consortium of academic institutions and government agencies in the Mintal area of Davao. He had retired from formally teaching creative writing and literature at U.P. Mindanao by 2018.
From 2007 to 2010, de Ungria served as Festival Director of Philippine International Arts Festivals. Around this time, he also sat on the board of judges for the Palanca Awards and chaired the Mindanao Science and Technology Park Consortium. He was a founding member of Philippine Literary Arts Council (PLAC) in 1981, and a member of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL). He headed the Committee on Literary Arts at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), where he became a Commissioner for the Arts in 2009. In 2015 and 2016, he served as director-in-residence of Silliman University's National Writers Workshop. For many years, he was a fellow of the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing in UP Diliman. He has served as a panelist in various writing workshops, including the UP Diliman, Silliman University, Davao Writers Guild, and the Ateneo de Davao Writers workshops. For his achievements in literature and writing, he was awarded the Gawad Balagtas by the UMPIL in 1999 and the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (Literature) by the City of Manila in 2007. He was also UP Artist 1 from 2009 to 2011 and 2012 to the present time and the recipient of nine National Book Awards as of 2025.
Selected works Poetry R+A+D+I+O (1986) Decimal Places (1991), Voideville: Selected Poems, 1974–79 (1991), Nudes: Poems (1994), Body English (1996), Waking Ice: Poems (2000), Pidgin Levitations (2004), m'mry wire (2013), Anthology (as editor) Luna Caledonia: Five Filipino Writers in Hawthornden Castle (1992), Passionate Patience: Ten Filipino Poets on the Writing of Their Poems (1995), Catfish Arriving in Little Schools (1996), The Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction 1996 (1997), The Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction 1999 (2001) with Jose Dalisay Jr., The Likhaan Anthology of Philippine Literature in English from 1900 to the Present (2002) with Gémino Abad, Fallen Cradle: Parents on the loss of a child (2006) with Agnes Prieto, Davao Harvest 2 (2008) with Tita Lacambra-Ayala, The Best of Dagmay (2007–2009) (2010), Tala Mundi: The Collected Poems of Tita Agcaoili Lacambra Ayala (2011), Habagatanon: Conversations with Six Davao Writers (2015), Voices on the Waters: Conversations with Five Mindanao Writers (2018), Songs Sprung from Native Soils (2019), Mindanao Harvest 4: A 21st Century Literary Anthology (2022) with Jaime An Lim and Christine F. Godinez-Ortega, Kalandrakas Part 1, 1890-1945: Stories and Storytellers of/on Regions in Mindanao, 1890-1990 (2022), Kalandrakas Part 2, 1946-1990: Stories and Storytellers of/on Regions in Mindanao, 1890-1990 (2022),
Honors and awards Year Award Work Awarding body Notes Ref 1974 Palanca Awards Second Prize in Poetry Boxes Palanca Memorial Awards Committee Tied for second with Gilbert Luis R. Centina III 1976 Poyms Tch Tch Passwords 1979 Nova Blum 1980 R+A+D+I+O Tied for second with Gémino Abad 1987 Fulbright Scholar Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Earned his MFA at Washington University in St. Louis 1988 Academy of American Poets Prize: Honorable Mention Academy of American Poets State Street Poetry Contest: Honorable Mention Florida State University 1989 First Prize Saint Louis Poetry Center Annual Contest 1990 Palanca Awards First Prize in Poetry Body English and Decimal Places Palanca Memorial Awards Committee 1991 Hawthornden Writing Residency Hawthornden Foundation 1993 Bellagio Writing Residency Rockefeller Foundation Worked on two volumes of poetry, Nudes and Body English 1994 National Book Awards: Poetry Nudes: Poems Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board 1996 Body English 1999 Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas 2000 National Book Awards: Poetry Waking Ice Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board 2005 National Book Awards: Design 2007 Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (Literature) City of Manila 2012 National Book Awards: Poetry in English Tala Mundi: The Collected Poems of Tita Agcaoili Lacambra Ayala Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board 2013 UP Artist I for Literature University of Philippines 2014 National Book Awards: Poetry in English m’mry wire Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board 2015 International Writers’ Residency Sun Yat-sen University 2016 National Book Awards: Best Anthology in English Habagatanon: Conversations with Six Davao Writers Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board Editor 2018 Southeast Asian Writers Award ASEAN 2019 National Book Awards: Best Anthology in English Voices on the Waters: Conversations with Five Mindanao Writers Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board Editor 2020 Ani ng Dangal for Literary Arts National Commission for Culture and the Arts 2022 National Book Awards: Best Anthology in English Mindanao Harvest 4 Manila Critics' Circle and National Book Development Board Editor 2023 Kalandrakas: Stories and Storytellers of/on Regions in Mindanao, Parts I and II ? CCP Verse-Writing Contest ? Philippines Free Press Awards Philippines Free Press
Personal life De Ungria's son Nikos died by suicide in 1998. Several of his subsequent poems focus heavily on this topic.
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