Noel Sales Barcelona

Noel Sales Barcelona is a freelance journalist, research consultant, editor, development communication specialist, social media manager, cultural worker, and intuitive spiritual counselor from Antipolo City, Rizal.

A prized poet and short-story writer, he was conferred by the Department of Filipinology, formerly part of the defunct College of Languages and Linguistics of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila the Gawad Makatang Mag-aaral ng Taon (Student Poet of Year Award) in 2002. He is the first recepient of the said award in the literary history of PUP. On that same year, he bagged the second prize of the prestigious Gawad Pandaylipi, Ink. sa Tula or the National Poetry Competition of Pandaylipi, in connection with its 25th Founding Anniversary.

He is also one of the lucky contenders who became the finalist for the Kabuwanan, Luzon-wide poetry competition, on April 2008 and in July 29, 2008, via the Internet radio 4EB 98.1FM, Brisbane, Australia, his story “Bote, Dyaryo, Bakal” was heard by the international Filipino community. He was also given the Certificate of Literary Achievement, by the Filipino-Australians in Brisbane, because of that short story. His poems and short stories have become part of different anthologies in the Philippines.

The author used to write for the Philippines Graphic, the defunct Dateline Philippines online news magazine, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ CBCP Monitor, Pinas Global Newspaper, the progressive newsweekly in the Filipino language, Pinoy Weekly (where he also served as its culture and international pages editor), PINAS The Filipinos’ Global Newspaper, and the Spirituality Times, a supplementary to the Manila Times. He also wrote for some online publications abroad. Some of his art reviews appeared in the Manila Bulletin and the Daily Tribune. He has also become the editor-in-chief of the defunct Cavite-wide newspaper, Inang Bayan; managing editor of International Seafarers Action! Journal of the International Seafarers Action Center (Philippines) Foundation, Inc.; and the monthly newspaper about workers and trade unionism, The Workers’ Forum.

He also authored three coffee table books about the arts namely Different Strokes: A Book on the Ingenuity of Filipino Artists Vol. 1 (FilArts, Inc., 2015); Different Strokes Volume 2: Watercolor Magic: The Works of the Best Watercolor ‘Magicians’ of the Pearl of the Orient Seas (FilArts, Inc., 2016); and Palettes: Feast of Colors (FilArts, Inc., 2017). He also used to edit Filipino Artists Magazine (a FilArts publication) and the founding editor of its sister newspaper, Philippine Art Post.

As part of his advocacy as a cultural worker, he co-founded The Filipinas Institute for the Advancement of Arts and Culture (FilArts), Inc. and served as its Secretary and Executive Director, until 2017. He also helped organize the Daloy-Likha International Arts and Nature Society, Inc. and currently is the Corporate Secretary and Executive Director of the group. He is also the managing partner of Daloy-Likha Arts and Nature Hub, which also serves as the organization’s international headquarters.

A professional lecturer on writing and development communications, he taught basic and advance journalism, literary criticism, poetry and newspaper management in different schools and colleges in Metro Manila and in Southern Tagalog region; and even helps nonprofits and civil society organizations in the Philippines with their media campaign and publication development. Moreover, he has also served as a consulting professional to the Forum on Family Planning and Development.

Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of Linang Magazine: Culture & Arts for the Global Filipino, which he also founded, first as an online magazine until they released the print, quarterly edition on February 2021. The magazine is now part of Daloy-Likha International Arts and Culture Society.