Recipient of the Man Asia Literary Prize for his novel Ilustrado, acclaimed Filipino author Miguel Syjuco is also, by several accounts, charming. I signed up for his writing workshop at NYU Abu Dhabi last week when the Literature department sent the email rounds about this young and charismatic author.

Over ADNH vegetable sandwiches and Nespresso machine coffee, I introduced myself to Syjuco before the workshop and asked about this point on his biography: “You went to the University of Adelaide for a PhD. Why would you go there?” I was born in Adelaide and noted that the highest building at the time was the hospital — a great contrast to New York City, where Syjuco attended Columbia University, or Dubai, for that matter, which houses the tallest building in the world.

“For love,” Syjuco said. “The two greatest loves of my life were both Australian women.”

Since Australia, Syjuco has moved to Harvard University for the Radcliffe Fellowship and taught at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. In the NYUAD conference room last Saturday, a crimson Harvard polo covered half of Syjuco’s St. Michael, or Miguel, tattoo — a nod to San Miguel beer, he said.

In his workshop last week, made up of both NYUAD professors and students, Syjuco introduced the idea of role-playing based on a news story.

The news story: a female law student, Annalise, began offering her professor gifts, such as shirts, a Mont Blanc pen and, eventually, sex. The professor and students in Syjuco’s workshop took the parts of Annalise, the professor, Annalise’s mother, the professor’s workmates, the professor’s lawyer, the university’s dean and the pen vendor. Each character was grilled by the rest of the room, in the style of a press conference.

Pressed for questions, the common sex scandal mutated in thirteen directions. The colleague that exposed the relationship was discovered to be an anti-abortion advocate, while the accused professor was pro-abortion. He had separated from his wife, who knowingly gave birth to a child with Down’s Syndrome. How about a multi-part report, first exposing the relationship and then diving into the abortion debate?

“That’s why I love the news — it’s an ongoing epic, always changing,” said Syjuco.

Creative Writing Professor Jim Savio’s character of the Mont Blanc vendor, who had known the student for years, attracted a lot of interest. How about a story from the perspective of the pen vendor, who had been in love with Annalise for years and finally exposed the affair out of jealousy?

The mob of reporters asked how the sex was. Syjuco dismissed the question: “That’s for tabloids.”

Syjuco first started teaching at a community center for retired women in Australia, where memoir writing was taught alongside salad-making and automotive mechanics. Syjuco also worked for newspapers and wrote freelance, he said, “to get me through my time in Adelaide.” Those working years were a recovery from Syjuco’s time in New York, when he moved from Manila to do an MFA at Columbia.

“I thought I knew the world, but New York is a tough city, and I had a hard time especially in my first semester,” said Syjuco. “Kind of lost myself that first year… I was going out too much, doing too many drugs, not doing my assignments. I had lost my focus and my perspective.”

He started seeing a therapist, seeing different friends and tried to stay at home to write. Everything changed for Syjuco when Ilustrado was published in 2010.

Looking back, Syjuco realized that he had a false impression about the distinction between students and professors. With both professors and students in his workshop on scandal day, Syjuco sought to flatten out the rift between the two roles.

“As I get older, I realize that people are trying to figure things out themselves, they’re studying as well, they’re teaching the things that they’re learning, not necessarily what they know all the time,” said Syjuco.

Peering through the imported palm trees in the campus’ central plaza to the city skyline in the distance, Syjuco said that he is fascinated by Abu Dhabi, and feels lucky to be exposed to both the achievements and complications of the country. He compared the UAE to Singapore. For Syjuco, both are young countries based on old cultures; both traditional and modern, yet incredibly unequal.

“Similar to Singapore, all these splendid things we’re seeing — the comfortable life that people have — are really based on the backs and sweats of a silent majority from all over the world, who are indeed very lucky to have the opportunity here to earn a living, but also have a lot of issues and disadvantages on how they’re treated by people, the distance from home,” said Syjuco.

Syjuco planned to drive out to a camp for migrant workers and visit the Sheikh Zayed Mosque later that day.

“I’m fascinated by this place because it’s a work in progress, it’s an argument for a different kind of society and democracy,” he said.