Gloria Villaraza Guzman was born in Malabon on January 11, 1925. She is the daughter of Lucino Villaraza and Flordeliza Sogueco. She finished her elementary school at Malabon Elementary School as Salutatorian.and high school in Malabon Central Institute where she finished second honor. She earned her bachelor’s degree at National Teachers College in 1955.

As poet and fictionist her works were published in leading magazines and journals like Liwayway Magazine (1943); Malaya Magazine (1946); Philippine Free Press (1950’s –1960’s); and Philippine Herald Midweek Magazine (1960’s). She has also written materials for children like Munting Patak-ulan (1977), and Munting Sinag-araw (1981), which were exhibited by UNESCO in Paris in 1985. Munting Patak-ulan was also made into murals in Children’s Hospital, Lungsod ng Kabataan in Quezon City. Her “Sa Balantok ng Bahaghari at Iba pang mga Tula” won the 1975 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature-Filipino Poetry while her “Handog ng Kalayaan” was awarded Cultural Center of the Philippines Grand Award for Epic in 1979. In 1983 she was awarded Komisyon ng Wika Award for Poetry, Fiction and Children’s Literature and in 1996 an Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) gave her Awards for Poetry and Fiction. The City of Manila presented her the Gawad sa P.anitikan in 1998. She was married to Leonardo Ilagan de Guzman.