FOR MOST of her life, Alma Miclat has been a doting wife to renowned writer Mario Miclat and mother to poet Maningning and stage actress Banaue.

Now she celebrates her 65th birthday with the launching of her first solo book, “Soul Searchers and Dreamers: Artists’ Profiles,” on Dec. 15, 6 p.m., at the GT-Toyota UP Asian Center, Asean Hall, UP Diliman, Q.C. The book compiles her essays on the arts published mostly in this newspaper and other publications.

Alma co-wrote, with her husband and daughters, “Beyond the Great Wall: A Family Journal” (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2006), which won a National Book Award for biography from the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board in 2007.

She is the senior vice president of Data Center Design Corporation and president and executive director of the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, Inc.