August 25, 2007

Call for submissions to an anthology of Southeast Asian Literature

Southeast Asia has been a region long divided not only by geographical and cultural boundaries but by the question of identity and belonging. One anthology will attempt to present the shades of contemporary Southeast Asian experiences of cultural/sexual identity, globalization, immigrant/expatriate experience, third culture phenomena, and new technologies, among others.

The call for submissions is open to Southeast Asian writers and translators under 40 years old. The anthology will focus on works dealing with contemporary themes, or employing new forms in poetry; prose (fiction, travelogues, essays, blogs, text, etc); drama (one-act plays, short screen/teleplays); graphic arts and comics (under 30 pages long); and everything in between—literary experiments as well as genre works (horror, sci-fi, fantasy, etc, or combinations thereof). Works must be limited to 8,000 words and must be in English (translations must be accompanied by the original text). Previously published works are also welcome.

Please send submissions to sealitbook@gmail.com, as attachments in MS Word document format. Deadline for manuscripts is September 15, 2007. Contributors will get multiple copies of the book.

The anthology editors are Jerome Kugan (Malaysia) and Mervin Espina (Philippines)

Tag: PUBLICATIONS

August 25, 2007

Poetry symposium, jazz concert in Baguio slated

The Baguio Writers Group in cooperation with Baguio Country Club and Smart Communications Inc. presents a poetry symposium on “To Do or to Be: How to Make a Poem” on Sept. 15, Saturday, 2-5 p.m. at the Wolfson Room of the Club.

Panelists include Marjorie Evasco, Sid Hildawa, Marra Lanot, Francis and Priscilla Macansantos, Edgar Maranan and Alfred Yuson.

In the same evening the writers group will host an invitational concert, “Jazz for Tonight,” at 7 p.m. at Par 7 of the Country Club. Featured performers are Jacqui Magno, Gou de Jesus, Richard Cariño, Desiree Caluza, Butch Cando, Egay Buñing, Joanifer Abubo, Enrico Subido, Ivan Cruz and On-Call.

Seats are limited. To reserve call or text 0927-989-0191.

August 11, 2007

"Miskol" is 2006 word of the year

"Miskol" is word of the year, besting eleven other entries to the 2007 Sawikaan: Salita ng Taon conference held in UP Diliman last August 2-3, 2007. Filipino language scholars, teacher delegates, and students chose the three winning words that include "roro" and "friendster."

Ateneo de Naga professor Adrian Remodo, miskol paper presenter, said the missed call practice among Filipinos is a world away from the New York usage. While the latter is nothing more than a missed business talk, miskol is enmeshed in the paramdam psychology of Filipinos. That split second ring on one's phone connotes "Buhay pa ako. Magparamdam ka naman." (I am still alive. Please get in touch soon.)

Akin to last year's "lobat", miskol is borne out of the Filipinos' going gaga over cell phone communication. But we claimed the technology and put it to uses peculiar to us. Language plays an important role in this cultural hijacking. We also say "Miskulin mo ako" to register a new cell number, find a misplaced phone, or simply to brag about a newly downloaded ringtone.

The runner up words, roro and friendster are almost as significant as the number one term. Roro is short for roll on-roll off or the inter-island, cross country transport system designed to spur national progress. Kristian Cordero, the Bikolano writer/presenter, said it is a relevant term as it implicates the archipelagic and waterworld transhistory of the Philippines. A political meaning also adheres to this word as the Macapagal administration highlights it as part of its developmental campaign. "Will we take the roro boat trick seriously?," Cordero asked.

Another phenomenon that gripped Filipinos in recent years is Friendster, the cyberspace personal site that connects friends and would be friends. Originally a date search program, more than five million Filipinos appropriated it as substitute to eyeballing and as a kind of conquest of the space/time barrier. Ateneo de Manila's Boom Enriquez said, Friendster and other cyperspace interlinks create a "third space" for the stressed-out yuppies. It is a place where one can present one's true or invented identity and forget the vulgarity of real life.

Other words that played important roles in contemporary Filipino life include sutukil (short Visayan sugba-tula-kilaw), videoke, make over, telenobela, extra judicial killing, party list, abrodista, oragon, and safety.

Equally productive were the panel discussions on Filipino as global language by professors Florentino Hornedo and Ruth Elynia Mabanglo and the lectures on Mexican and French language development by Ambassador Erendira Araceli Paz Campos and First Secretary Georges-Gaston Feydeau. The participants learned insights relevant to the Filipino language advocacy.

Last year's conference papers are now available in book form, Sawikaan 2006 (Roberto T. Añonuevo and Galileo Zafra, editors. Quezon City:University of the Philippines Press, 2007) which was launched during the conference. National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario, UP Diliman Chancellor Sergio S. Cao and book illustrator Pandi Aviado attended the event. They also opened the illustration exhibit held at the venue's adjoining gallery.

Sawikaan underscores the primary role of language in how we Filipinos perceive and make sense of the world. The roster of entries to this year's conference patently proves this. Sawikaan 2007 is funded by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and Blas Ople Foundation, and spearheaded by the Filipinas Institute of Translation (FIT). The UP President's Office, UP Diliman Chancellor's Office, and the UP College of Arts and Letters were also important sponsors. Visit http://www.sawikaan.net for more information.

Tag: NEWS

August 5, 2007

"Transpormers" at the UP Press Bookstore

Three young writers in Filipino will read their latest works at the UP Press Bookstore Diliman on August 17. Vladimeir Gonzales, Carlos Piocos, and Mykel Andrada will be featured in the afternoon program titled "Transpormers." Included in the works to be performed are pieces that are anime-, love-, and political killings-inspired. "Transpormers" will be held at the rear veranda of the UP Press Bookstore Diliman at the ground floor of Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. The reading begins at 4:00 p.m. Admission is free.

"Transpormers" is part of the series of monthly readings at the UP Press Bookstore Diliman, which started in May with a reading of new stories by Anna Sanchez, Mary Jessel Duque, Francezca Kwe, and Marie Aubrey Villaceran. This was followed by a chapbook launching and reading by High Chair poets Marc Gaba, Misandel Arguelles, and Jose Beduya. July featured Paolo Manalo reading poems he wrote at in the USA and Scotland. In September, Conchitina Cruz will be reading her latest works.

Transpormers is part of the UP Press's activities in celebration of Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa. For more information on these and other UP Press events, call (632) 9282558 local 110.

Tag: EVENTS

August 5, 2007

The 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize - Longlist Announced
Adrienne Clarkson named Chair of the panel of judges

Hong Kong, 20 July 2007 – The Administrative Committee for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize has today announced the longlist of works for this inaugural prize

Tulsi Badrinath, The Living God
Sanjay Bahadur, The Sound Of Water
Kankana Basu, Cappuccino Dusk
Sanjiv Bhatla, Injustice
Shahbano Bilgrami, Without Dreams
Saikat Chakraborty, The Amnesiac
Jose Dalisay Jr., Soledad's Sister
Reeti Gadekar, Families at Home
Xiaolu Guo, 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
Ameena Hussein, The Moon in the Water
Nu Nu Yi Inwa, Smile As They Bow
Jiang Rong, Wolf Totem
Hitomi Kanehara, Autofiction
N S Madhavan, Litanies of Dutch Battery
Laxmi Narayan Mishra, The Little God
Mo Yan, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
Nalini Rajan, The Pangolin's Tale
Chiew-Siah Tei, Little Hut of Leaping Fishes
Shreekumar Varma, Maria's Room
Anuradha Vijayakrishnan, Seeing The Girl
Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, Pichaikuppan
Xu Xi, Habit of a Foreign Sky
Egoyan Zheng, Fleeting Light

This longlist of 23 unpublished works of Asian fiction in English will be reviewed and evaluated by the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize judges, who will announce a shortlist of works in October 2007. The winner will be announced on Saturday, 10 November at an awards ceremony in Hong Kong.

The judging panel for the 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize is: Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada (Chair); André Aciman, New York-based author and scholar, and Nicholas Jose, writer, scholar and former Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China.

The 2007 Man Asian Literary Prize longlist was chosen from among 243 submissions received from all over Asia. Approximately two-thirds of the submissions came from South Asia; the largest single group of submissions was from India. The rest came from throughout East Asia. The Prize received submissions from well-established as well as first-time authors, and entries included translated works as well as works originally in English.

The longlist was produced by a joint committee of senior faculty from the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, overseen by Professors Christopher Hutton and David Parker, Chairs of the respective English Departments.

Peter Gordon, Chairman of the Man Asian Literary Prize, said: “This first year's submissions exceed our expectations both in quantity and breadth. We are very pleased at the reception this inaugural Prize has received throughout the region and to see submissions from almost every country in Asia. Submitting a new work to a new Prize can be a courageous act, especially for unpublished authors, and we are grateful to all the au thors who took part.”

Man Group plc is the sponsor of the Man Asian Literary Prize. Man Group also sponsors the annual Man Booker Prize and the bi-annual Man Booker International Prize.

Tag: NEWS

August 5, 2007

Fifty years of Things Fall Apart

To mark the half a century milestone of the literary path-breaker in 2008, scholars, researchers, teachers, students, professionals, and general readers are invited to submit articles for a multiple volume critical anthology on Things Fall Apart. Contributors are encouraged to be innovative and adventurous in their exploration, with the singular aim of eliciting the novel's uniqueness, impact, influence, and continuity. Among others, submissions may consider Things Fall Apart in relation to any one of the following: Discourse and theory, Diaspora and alienation, race and globalization, gender and sexuality, and minority, Environment and the animal, Language and linguistics, Influences and historicism, Art and visual culture, Culture and hospitality, Communication and Comparison, Space and Science.

Required: Submissions should be either in English or French language, no longer than 18 pages of A4 paper, in the MLA style, on Microsoft Word, and Emailed as attachment to: tfaat50@yahoo. com.

Each contributor could submit no more than two different essays. Previously published essays are welcome if copyright is with author.

Deadlines: Proposal submissions are due September 15, 2007. Full paper submissions will close at 12 midnight, November 15, 2007.

Publication date: March 2008.

Editors:
Victor O. Aire, Languages & Linguistics, University of Jos, Nigeria
S. O. O. Amali, Vice Chancellor/Presiden t, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Glen P. Bush, English, Heartland Community College, Normal, IL, US
Augustine-Ufua Enahoro, Theater Arts & Communication, Univ. of Jos,
Nigeria
Okey Ndibe, English, Trinity College, Hartford, CT, US
Obiwu, Writing Center, Central State University, Wilberforce, OH, US
Olu Oguibe, Art & African American Studies, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT, US
Kanchana Ugbabe, English, University of Jos, Nigeria

Tag: PUBLICATIONS

August 5, 2007

National Artist Jose to give lecture

National Artist for Literature Francisco Sionil Jose will grace the Ortigas Foundation Library on August 16, 2007 to give a lecture entitled, “History as Literature.”

The lecture will be held on Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m. Admission is free. For more information please call 631.1231 local 222 or email ortigasfoundation@ortigas.com.ph.

F. (Francisco) Sionil José, founded the Philippine Center of PEN, an international organization of poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists. His work includes eleven novels, five books of short stories, a book of verse, a collection of stories for children and four books of essays. He has received numerous fellowships, honorary Ph.D’s and awards, which include: the Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Award (1980); the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Centennial Honors for the Arts (1999); the National Artist Award for Literature (2001); and the Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004).

Tag: EVENTS

August 5, 2007

Pistang Panitik 2007

After success of last year’s "Pistang Panitik," LIKHAAN: The U.P. Institute of Creative Writing, in partnership with the Book Development Association of the Philippines, Prime Trade Asia, Anvil Publishing, the National Book Development Board and Read Or Die, will mount "Pistang Panitik 2007" at the World Trade Center from August 30, 2007 to September 2, 2007 to coincide with the 28th Manila International Book Fair.

"Pistang Panitik" was conceived by UP ICW Director Vim Nadera as a literary festival where readers and writers alike can meet and greet. This year’s "Pistang Panitik" is much more ambitious as it spans over the 5 days of the Manila International Book Fair.

Araw ni Bienvenido Lumbera
AUGUST 30 (Thursday)
Function Rm A
1:00-3:00 p.m.

KRITIKO: Dr. Roland Tolentino, Dr. Rod Nuncio, at Dr. Rosario Torres Yu
TAGAPAGTANGHAL: Bb. Susan Magno
MULA SA MAMBABASA: Kristin Mandigma & Marianne Suba

Araw ni Francisco Sionil Jose
AUGUST 31 (Friday)
Function Rm A
1:00-3:00 p.m.

KRITIKO: Dr. Neil Garcia, Dr.Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta at Ferdie Lopez
TAGAPAGTANGHAL: Under Siege
MULA SA MAMBABASA: Mia Sereno & Israel Realin

Araw ni Virgilio Almario
SEPTEMBER 1 (Saturday)
Function Rm B
1:00- 3:00 p.m.

KRITIKO: G. Roberto Añonuevo, Prof. Mike Coroza at G. Rogelio Mangahas
TAGAPAGTANGHAL: Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo
MULA SA MAMBABASA: Kristel Autencio, Renita Norada

Araw ni Alejandro Roces
SEPTEMBER 2 (Sunday)
Function Rm A
1:00- 5:00 p.m.

KRITIKO: Dr. Isagani Cruz, Prof. Lito Zulueta, at Prof. Danton Remoto
TAGAPAGTANGHAL: Alitaptap Storytellers Philippines
MULA SA MAMBABASA: Rachel Teng, Karen Inocencio & Paolo Cruz

Araw ni Edith Tiempo

PANAUHIN: G. Alfred Yuson, Dr. Gemino Abad, Prof. Ralph Galan
TAGAPAGTANGHAL: Ony Carcamo
MULA SA MAMBABASA: Pamela Punzalan & Mia Marci

Visit the "Pistang Panitik 2007" website for the schedules and updates, or call the UP ICW at 922-1830.

Tag: EVENTS

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