Renato Gandia

Renato Gandia is a Filipino-Canadian writer whose work explores the intersections of identity, faith, sexuality, and migration. Born and raised in the Philippines, he emigrated to Canada in 1997, a move that deepened his fascination with belonging and the emotional landscapes of the diaspora. A former journalist for Alberta’s daily newspapers, he now works in strategic communications in the energy sector.

His work appears in Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing (Cormorant Books, 2024) and in two forthcoming literary publications, one in a digital magazine and another in a themed anthology.

Renato’s debut portfolio includes the memoir Redeeming Renato: A Memoir and the literary novel Anatomy of Compersion. Both are complete and available for acquisition. Redeeming Renato is an intimate, lyrical account of his journey from small-town Philippines to a Canadian seminary, confronting love, loss, and the tension between religious devotion and queer identity. Anatomy of Compersion explores the evolving relationship between a straight woman, her bisexual husband, and her husband’s gay lover, asking whether love can stretch wide enough to feel the joy of your loved one’s happiness even when the source is someone else?

He lives in Calgary with his husband and their wise, seventeen-year-old dog.