My latest blurb:
Victor Fernando R. Ocampo is the author of the International Rubery Book Award shortlisted The Infinite Library and Other Stories (Math Paper Press, 2017; Gaudy Boy, 2021) and Here be Dragons (CANVAS Press, 2015), which won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012. His play-by-email interactive fiction piece “The Book of Red Shadows” debuted at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2020.
His writing has appeared in many publications including Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Future Fiction, Likhaan Journal, Strange Horizons, Philippines Graphic, Science Fiction World and The Quarterly Literature Review of Singapore, as well as anthologies like The Best New Singapore Short Stories, Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction, LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, the Philippine Speculative Fiction series and Mapping New Stars: A Sourcebook on Philippine Speculative Fiction.
He is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, a fellow of the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference (UK), and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Scriptwriting Workshop, as well as a Jalan Besar writer-in-residence at Sing Lit Station (2020/2021).
Find me online at the following:
Follow me on Twitter @VictorOcampo
Selected Speaking Engagements
- (Upcoming) “Paghasik ng Munting Katha” (Flash Fiction for Beginners) – SingLit Station in association with the Migrant Writers of Singapore, 26 Feb 2023
- “Celebrating Rizal Day with Penguin Randomhouse SEA Authors” – Moderator/Fireside chat host – Philippine Embassy Singapore, 30 December 2022.
- “Don’t Stop Me If You’ve heard This One Before” (Writing and Generative Text) – Moderator, Singapore Writers Festival, 20 Nov 2021
- “A Southeast Asian Map for the Science Fiction Future” – Moderator, Singapore Writers Festival, 19 Nov 2021
- “Just The World I’m Looking for: The Multiverse and Fiction” – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 12 Nov 2021
- “Reading-Dialogue across the Sea between Get Luckier Sg/Phil writers”, Reader, Singapore Poetry Festival, 20 July 2022
- “The Gaudy Boy Reading + Mini-Panel on Publishing” – Reader, Panellist, Gaudy Boy at the Crane Club, 14 July 2022
- “Hope and the Future in Philippine Speculative Fiction” – Speaker, BCSC Asian American Heritage Series, Brown University (USA), 12 May 2022
- “Brick by Brick: Worldbuilding Future Cities” – Panellist, BOSKONE 59 (New England Science Fiction and Fantasy convention, USA), 19 Feb 2022
- “Speculative Fiction from Multi-lingual Authors” – Panellist, Reader BOSKONE 59 (New England Science Fiction and Fantasy convention, USA), 18 Feb 2022
- “Novel Writing Workshop” – Lecturer, Yale-NUS Writing Centre (Singapore), 9 Oct 2021
- “Man Vs Machine” – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 03 Oct 2021
- “Time is an Illusion Alternatives to the Gregorian Calendar”- Moderator, BonFiyah Con (USA), 18 Sep 2021
- Occultism and Esoterica for Writers”- Panellist, BonFiyah Con (USA), 18 Sep 2021
- “Posthumous Post-Humanity: What’s Beyond The Human Species?” – Panellist, Future-Con (Brazil), 04 Sep 2021
- “Future South & East Asia: What Future is Taking Shape in India, Pakistan, Philippines?” – Moderator, Future-Con Brazil, 17 Sep 2020
- “The Roots of Singapore Speculative Fiction” – Lecturer, Jalan Besar Lecture Series Singapore Literature Station, 30 Apr 2021
- “Embracing the Weird: Writing Speculative Fiction” workshop for secondary school students run by the Singapore Book Academy – Lecturer, Singapore Book Council, 17 Dec 2020
- “Future Currents: Philippines and Singapore” – Panellist, Future-Con Brazil, 29 Nov 2020
- “Running a Genre Magazine” – Panellist, BonFiyah Con (USA), 16 Sep 2020
- “Should I Italicise that?” – Panellist, BonFiyah Con (USA), 16 Sep 2020
- “Future South & East Asia: What Future is Taking Shape in India, Pakistan, Philippines?” – Moderator, Future-Con Brazil, 17 Sep 2020
- “An Introduction to Asian Science Fiction” – Lecturer, Other Futures (Netherlands), 11 April 2020
- “Dreaming of Stranger Futures” – Panellist, #BuySingLit Festival, Singapore Book Council, 11 Mar 2020
- “Our Continuing Fascination with Dystopia” – Lecturer, 2219: Futures Imagined, Singapore Arts Science Museum, 05 Dec 2019
- “Conversations: Is Science the New Religion?” – Moderator, Singapore Writers Festival, 09 Nov 2019
- “Conversations: Ruling the Galaxy?” – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 09 Nov 2019
- “Predicting The Future with Science Fiction” – Speaker, Read! Fest 2019, Singapore Book Council, 21 May 2019
- “Words In Progress: Yale-NUS Manuscript Intensive Weekend 2019” – Lecturer, Yale-NUS Writing Centre (Singapore), 08-10 Mar 2019
- “Ad Astra Per Verba: Writing your First Science Fiction Story” – Lecturer, Open: Singapore Young Writers Lab, Singapore Book Council, 02 Mar 2019
- “Chicken Rice and Adobo: What We Love about the Philippines and Singapore”– Panellist/Reader, Singapore Writers Festival, 11 Nov 2018
- “Speculative Fiction as Moral Compass”– Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 10 Nov 2018
- “LONTAR Retrospective” – Panellist/Reader, Singapore Writers Festival, Singapore Writers Festival, 08 Nov 2018
- “Classroom Series: The Influence of Science Fiction in Modern Science” – Speaker, Singapore Writers Festival, 05 Nov 2018
- The Familiar And The Alien” – Moderator, Singapore Writers Festival, 04 Nov 2018 – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 05 Nov 2017
- “Writing Flash Fiction” – Lecturer, BooksActually Seminar Series (Singapore), 22 Dec 2017 – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 05 Nov 2017
- “Breakout: A Gala Reading” – Speaker/Reader, Singapore Writers Festival, 03 Nov 2018
- “A Brave New World: Speculative Fiction in Singapore” – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 06 Nov 2017
- The Real Science in Science Fiction” – Panellist, Singapore Writers Festival, 05 Nov 2017
- “Surreal Worlds of Southeast Asia” – Panellist, WorldCon 75 (World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, Finland) 11 Aug 2017
- “Your Mythology is much like my Mythology.” – Panellist, WorldCon 75 (World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, Finland), 10 Aug 2017
- “Saving the World. All of It.” – Panellist, LonCon 3(World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, UK), 16 Aug 2014
- “The World at WorldCon: SF/F in South and South-East Asia” – Panellist LonCon 3 (World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, UK), 16 Aug 2014
The Infinite Library and Other Stories 
Victor I would like to thank you for educating me on my late grandfathers work, Nemesio E Caravana. I have not had the privileged to meet my mother’s family in the Philippines, however my late mother, Liwanag, has told me many stories about her father and family. Thank you for keeping Nemesio’s legend alive.
It was my pleasure! I am always on the look out for a complete copy of his serial “Ang Puso ni Matilde” and his other stories. He did such fantastic work. Cheers!
pMarks, he is also my grandfather. =) i have not met a lot of the caravana side of the family….
Hope do I contact you? My mother was his first daughter, Liwanag…best friend Carol Varga. ❤
Please email me at vrocampo at gmail.com
Pls email me at ryannegirl23 @yahoo.com
Lolo Nemesio is my Lola’s brother. Lola is Felipa.
Good morning, Mr. Ocampo! 😀 May I ask to interview you on the topic of science fiction in the philippines? It would be very nice to interview you online 😀 thank you Mr. Ocampo!
Hi Isabelle, sure. Let me respond to you via email.
Hey Victor, would you be interested in creating a location-aware story in Singapore for VoiceMap?
This is quite cool. Let me reach out to you via the email on your site.
Hey Victor, you can email me christine@voicemap.me.
Will do. Thanks!
hi uncle. this is deeksha. i read the book it was really nice. i actually wanted to know how you got the idea for that storyline?
hi uncle. this is deeksha. thanks for sending me the book. i had a lovely time reading it. it has a really nice storyline and meaning to it.
Glad you like it Deeksha!
Good Afternoon Sir VR,
I am Jett Ilagan a visual artist and a composer from Sta.Rosa, Laguna.
Few months ago I started a musical project where in I collaborated with foreign musicians to come up with my EP entitled ORBIT 21 which is based on Jose Ma Espino’s Novel. In the process, I paired up with electronic artists from Canada, UK, Korea, etc to interpret some short stories in the compilation.
We are already in the final stage of the production, but I felt like there’s a missing piece: I have no idea who Jose Ma Espino was, the only clue I have is the short description of him in the book. I browsed the internet and search for any possible answer but sadly nothing comes up. Then I stumbled upon your blog about early Filipino short stories, and I’m wondering maybe you have any idea about his early life. I would really love to know him or his family and maybe let them hear the project that we did.
I hope you can enlighten me about this great author.
-Jett Ilagan
I am sorry to see this only now. I had nor been blogging for a while. If you are still interested please contact me via vrocampo at gmail.com I may be able to point you to someone who can help,
Hey Victor,
My name is Fin and I’m writing you on behalf of Steve Young, who is currently in the process of writing some science fiction. I recommended you to him, after stumbling across your various creative fiction online. He also lives in the Philippines and desires some assistance in the writing and editing of his own sci-fi fiction. I know this is a passion of yours and would appreciate if you could give me some advice about if Steve might be able to work with you on his writing, or if you have any suggestions for his search into Filipino Sci-Fi writers who could help him with this work. Thanks Victor! Hope to hear from you.
I’m not based in the Philippines but drop me a note at vrocampo at gmail.com and I’ll see how I can help.
good evening Mr. Ocampo, may I interview you regarding to your work entitled “The Old Blue Notebook”…. advance thank you po 🙂 I am looking forward to your respond.
Dear Mr. Ocampo,
May I ask if you are connected to the Victor Ocampo to whom Borges dedicated his story Garden of the Forking Paths? I see that you list him as someone who influenced you, but I’m don’t know if you are old enough to have been his contemporary. I also know that he knew Victoria Ocampo. Perhaps you are connected?
If you find me too nosy, I apologize. But “Garden” is one of my favorite stories and I’ve always wondered who the dedicatee was.
Thank you,
Susan Glosser
Dear Susan,
It is among one of my favorite stories as well. Borges informs a lot of my fiction. However, I have only imaginary connections to the Victor Ocampo that he dedicated this story to.
Dear Victor,
Thank you for replying. Is Victor then Victoria Ocampo?
I live in Portland Oregon, US, and would love to read your books, but I’m having a hard time finding copies either on line or in our books stores? Can you tell please tell me where I can purchase them? Thank you.
Susan
Dear Susan. I can only assume that “Victor Ocampo” was indeed his friend and publisher Victoria Ocampo. I am not sure why he changed the gender.
Thank you so much for your interest in my book. You can get a copy here – https://www.booksactuallyshop.com/products/the-infinite-library
Dear Victor,
Thank you very much for the link. I’m looking forward to reading it.
Best wishes,
Susan