Born and raised in the Philippines, Benito Vergara is the author of two academic monographs, Displaying Filipinos: Photography and Colonialism in Early 20th-Century Philippines and Pinoy Capital: The Filipino Nation in Daly City. His work has appeared in Tin House Open Bar, SmokeLong Quarterly, Joyland, Entropy, and elsewhere. He has also received a fellowship from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and blogs occasionally at The Wily Filipino.