Vancouver, B.C.
Vancouver author and playwright recognized for work
C.E. ‘Chris’ Gatchalian is one of the recipients of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia’s Arts and Music Awards.
These one-time awards recognize individuals, groups, and organizations throughout British Columbia who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, creativity, community engagement, and commitment through fostering and mentoring others in the fields of Visual Arts, Music or Performance. The Lieutenant Governor’s Arts and Music Awards celebrates artists whose work promotes social equity, equality, inclusion, and enhances the well-being of communities of all sizes and citizens of all ages.
Born, raised and based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Musqueam, Squamish and Tseil-Waututh, C.E. Gatchalian is a queer Filipinx-Canadian author. The author of six books and co-editor of two anthologies, he is a three-time Lambda Literary Award finalist and the recipient of two Jessie Richardson Awards for his work as a theatre artist and producer. In 2013 he received the Dayne Ogilvie Prize in 2013, awarded annually by The Writers’ Trust of Canada to an outstanding emerging LGBTQI+ writer. Chris’s plays include Falling in Time, People Like Vince, Motifs and Repetitions, Claire, Broken, and Crossing. Formerly Artistic Producer of the frank theatre company, Vancouver’s professional queer theatre company, Gatchalian’s plays have been produced locally, nationally and internationally. His memoir is titled: Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty and the Making of a Brown Queer Man.
He is currently co-editing the upcoming book- ‘Magdaragat: Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing’ to be published in the Spring of 2023 by Cormorant Books.