Adrian De Leon is an award-winning writer, poet, critic, and public historian.

He is the author and editor of six books, including most recently: barangay: an offshore poem (2021), which was cited as one of 2021’s Best Canadian Poetry Collections by CBC Books; Bundok: A Hinterland History of Filipino America (2023); Balikbayan: A Revenant History of the Filipino Homeland, (University of Washington Press, 2026); and Notes from a Wayward Son: A Memoir (Doubleday Canada/Great Circle Books, 2026).

He is writing two books: Maharlika in Manhattan: Dining, Dictatorship, and the Struggle for Filipino New York (Rutgers University Press, under contract); and a sweeping history of the Philippines’s relationship to colonialism in the Americas and the ascendancy of United States imperialism, from Ferdinand Magellan’s landing in 1521 to the War on Terror in the 21st century.

Adrian was a writer and co-host for A People’s History of Asian America (2021) and Historian’s Take (2022) on PBS Digital Studios. His recent commentary has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, PBS NewsHour, ABC Nightline, The Los Angeles Times, and more.

He received his PhD in History at the University of Toronto in 2019. He is a 2025 Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians, a Trustee and National Scholar of the Filipino American National Historical Society (2020-2026), and was the 2023-2024 Jack and Nancy Farley Distinguished Visiting Scholar in History at Simon Fraser University. From 2019 to 2024, he taught at the University of Southern California as an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity.

Adrian now resides in New York, where he teaches American and Philippine histories at New York University, and co-chairs Sulo: The Global Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU.

He is represented by Johanna Castillo at the Writers House Literary Agency.