Lakan Umali graduated with a BA in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines Diliman and is currently pursuing an MA in Sociology from the same university. He is a former member of UP Writers Club, UP Lingua Franca, and the UP Anthropology Society. His short stories are included in Science Fiction: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults, Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 10, Kritika Kultura, and upcoming in New Voices and Lontar: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction.