Background
Arlene J. Tea was born on July 12, 1955 in Manila, Philippines, in the Philippines.
Arlene J. Tea was born on July 12, 1955 in Manila, Philippines, in the Philippines.
She graduated from Maryknoll College in the Philippines and received Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976.
She is infamous for her ability to weave the political struggle of the Philippines so well into her fiction, so much that she is often compared with Isabel Allende, a successful magical realist Chilean novelist.
She became an advertising copywriter at George Patterson's advertising agency in 1972 and has been working there since. It is there that she met her mentor Bryce Courtney, who continuously inspires her to improve her work.