Troy Cabida

was born in 1995, grew up in Las Piñas City, Metro Manila and is currently based in London. He is a poet, writer, library worker, and a Leo.

He is the author of Symmetric of Bone (fourteen poems, 2024) and War Dove (Bad Betty Press, 2020).

His debut collection, Neon Manila, (Nine Arches Press, forthcoming 2025), is an exploration of the queer Filipino body in all of its skin and glitter. Looking at pop music, fashion, jewellery, dating mishaps, and everyday London life, these poems seek a better grasp of the relationships we build with ourselves, of the internal as constantly contoured by the external.

His work has been published in Seaford Review, TLDTD Journal, bath magg, anthologised in Masculinity, Bi+ Lines, State of Play, and 100 Queer Poems, commissioned by TAPE Collective, RUMAH, Small Green Shoots, and Tiffany & Co, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for Poetry 2024.

In his writing, Troy explores the nuances of Filipino subjectivity, sexuality, joy, discrimination, jewellery, and clothing within the sphere of queerness.

Performance credits include Tenderbooks, Burley Fisher Books, Red Bean Poetry, Venn Diagram, the European Poetry Festival, the Newcastle Poetry Festival, ESEA Lit Fest, The RAP Party, Yeah OK!, Everything, TOAST Poetry, Barbican Centre, The Prince Charles Cinema, ArtfulScribe Lit Fest, and The Rialto Theatre.

An alum of the Barbican Young Poets, Troy has served as producer for London open mic night Poetry and Shaah. He currently works for the National Poetry Library.

He holds a BA in Psychosocial Studies from Birkbeck, University of London.