Vida Cruz-Borja ( Cruz) is a Filipina author of essays, short stories, and long-form fiction.
Career
In 2018, she was awarded a Tiptree Fellowship.
Cruz-Borja published her first fantasy short story collection, Beyond the Line of Trees, in 2019.
With the help of teammates L.D. Lewis, Brent Lambert, and Iori Kusano, Cruz-Borja established FIYAHCON. This event, hosted by FIYAH Literary Magazine, honors Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) writers. For this, Cruz-Borja was a joint finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Related Work. She became the fifth Filipino to be nominated for the award, and the first to be based in the Philippines.
Her 2022 collection Song of the Mango and Other New Myths received critical attention. Zhui Ning Chang of the British Science Fiction Association called Cruz-Borja "a key voice in contemporary Philippine speculative fiction." Kristy Wang of Strange Horizons wrote that the collection encapsulates the author's desire to build a better world, "and she threads this passion through her stories, whether they envision justness and equity on a societal level or within the life of an individual or individuals."
In a review for the Daily Tribune, Amelia Clarissa de Luna Monasterial discussed Cruz-Borja's 2025 novella Mirror Marked. The reviewer praised the novella for its non-linear storytelling and multiple points of view. The reviewer also felt that the book's queer characters were well-developed and portrayed positively.
Works
Novellas
Collections
Short fiction
Non-fiction
"Activist SFF Isn’t Just About Good Intentions." The SFWA Bulletin, Winter/Spring 2021 "We Are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist." Fantasy Magazine, August 2021 Later collected in: "Where Do Stories Begin?"
Awards and honors
Cruz-Borja was a joint finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Related Work, for FIYAHCON. Her essay "We Are the Mountain: A Look at the Inactive Protagonist" won the 2022 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Creative Nonfiction.
References