Tita Lacambra-Ayala was born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte (1931), but chose to make her home in Davao, where she mentored artists and writers since the late 1970s.

Friends: Adventures of a Professional Amateur is the author's autobiography published back to back with Camels and Shapes of Darkness in a Time of Olives a compilation of fifty poems: "In the Beachcomber's Hut"; "Shapes of Darkness"; "Renascence"; "Stella"; "Buy a Star"; "Collision"; "The New Centurion"; "A Definition"; "Heroes"; "April 1983 Summer Drought"; "Complaint"; "A Step Beyond"; "A Fool's Summer Song"; "Lost- One Rebel"; "Rubaiyat's Sacrament"; "Drinking Song"; "Portrait of Reina"; "Tone Poem"; "Time Condition"; "Poem for the Department of Education, Culture and Sports"; "Redeeming Factors"; "Letter in Lieu of Poem"; "Day for Michelle Who Loves Sunlight"; "Counterpoint in Double Poem"; "Hard Times Are Hard Times"; "Coffee Break"; "Changes"; "Lahar, Moon Over Flood"; "Game"; "Cycle"; "Wanderlust"; "Studio"; "Poem for Lilia"; "On Viewing Luna's Spolarium"; "Tourist City in Summer"; "The Flowers of Youth"; "Aquatic Chiaroscuro"; "Icon"; "Drinking Song"; "A Monsoon of Friends"; "The True Condition of Man"; "The Camel is a Wise Animal"; "How Solid the Country Is"; "When Grandmother Opens Her Purse"; "Three Poems for Sabado Nights"; "The Trick is to Find"; "When I Met Santa Claus"; "The Doctor Said"; "Coming Back"; "Epilogue for a Dead Poet".

Other books include Sunflower Poems (1960), Ordinary Poems (1969), and Tala Mundi: The Collected Poems of Tita Agcaoili Lacambra Ayala (2011), but according to the author, her masterpiece is the Road Map Series, an artful poster-zine with 76 issues published from 1981 to 2011.

Tita Lacambra Ayala passed away in 2019 at the age of 88. Some of her archives are available at ALIWW.

Publisher:
New Day Publishers, Philippines

Publication Date:
1998

Format:
Softcover / 9.25 x 6 inches / 140 pages / BW

Language:
English

ISBN: 971-542-155-5