He was born the second of four children, in Baguio, the Philippines, and raised in Los Angeles, United States.[1] He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Southern California and later studied playwriting at the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute at East West Players.[3] He received his Master of Divinity in Buddhist Chaplaincy from the University of the West.
In addition to his writing, Alumit has worked as an HIV/AIDS educator with the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team in Los Angeles.[4]
His debut novel, Letters to Montgomery Clift (MacAdam/Cage), was published in 2002,[4][9] and received the 2003 Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association,[1] the Violet Quill Award from Insight Out Books,[1] the Global Filipino Literary Award from Our Own Voice[1] and the Gold Seal from ForeWord magazine.[1] His second novel, Talking to the Moon, was released in late 2006 by Carroll & Graf.[1] His collection of short stories Music Heard in Hi-Fi was published in 2023 (Rebel Satori).
He can be seen in Alliance (Rad Love Productions) and the forthcoming Pearls Lost directed by Rebecca Ocampo.
Honors
Alumit received an Emerging Voices Fellowship from PEN Center USA West[1] and a Community Access Scholarship to UCLA's Writers Extension, studying fiction and the personal essay form.[3]
Mr. and Mrs. La Questa Go Dancing - A play about a Filipino couple dancing the night away, finding new meaning to their lives by retelling stories about their son[13]
The Rice Room: Scenes From a Bar (1999) - A one-man show portraying the life as a gay Asian man in Los Angeles, told through six characters[14]
Master of the (Miss) Universe (2001) - A one-man show describing life as a young, gay, Filipino boy growing up in the Ramparts area of Los Angeles, while using authentic video footage from various beauty contests[15]
Letters to Montgomery Clift (2002) - A coming of age story of Bong Bong Luwad, a Filipino boy, who enlists the spirit of 1950s screen idol Montgomery Clift to help him find his mother who is imprisoned in the Philippines under the Marcos regime
Talking to the Moon (2006) - A magic realism story about an immigrant family and their American-raised son