December 14, 2007
Rene O. villanueva laid to rest
by Arvin Abejo Mangohig Rene Villanueva's remains were cremated last Sunday, December 9, 2007, at the Sanctuarium in Quezon City . He was 53 years old. He had suffered a stroke on December 2 and fell into a coma at the Philippine Heart Center. He is survived by wife Anna Marie and four daughters.
Renato O. Villanueva became an Associate of the UP Institute of Creative Writing. He also taught at the Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikang Pilipino, where he quickly gained terror-status and a reputation for speaking his own mind. One of the truly literary greats, Villanueva was a Palanca Hall of Famer, with a record number of most wins (29) tucked under his belt. His other awards include the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining (Literatura); Pinakamahusay na Alagad ng Sining sa 2005 Gawad Chanselor sa UP, Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines 1989 and hailed as one of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World in 1992.
Awards aside, Villanueva will forever be known as the creator of Philippine TV classic Batibot. Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing were more popular than Big Bird and Cookie Monster in the 80s and 90s. The gravel-voiced monkey and the eternally benign gigantic turtle were just some of Villanueva's puppet creations; Ging-ging and Manang Bola also entered the popular consciousness of Filipino children. The saliency of having brown-skinned and native characters replace Western characters were noted by local and international thinktanks.
His works value individualism and delve into dark themes like incest and militarization. The classic "Ang Unang Baboy sa Langit" narrates the crusade of Butsiki, a prim and proper pig who opposes social, if not biological, expectations. His essays/memoirs are collected in the twin volumes Personal and (Im)Personal.
At the recent UP Writers Night, poet Romulo Baquiran read Villanueva's "Huling Habilin." With his usual acerbic wit, Villanueva described his ideal wake: one of the nights had to be reserved for videoke tributes. He wanted a closed coffin, to be decked out in powder blue clothes and not much crying. At another tribute, children's story writer Luis Gatmaitan called Villanueva a dear friend and a national treasure.
Playwright, teacher and literary stalwart, Villanueva will be missed by students, colleagues and readers of his unforgettable works.
Tag: NEWS
December 14, 2007
UP Press year-end blast The University of the Philippines Press ends the year on a high note by staging Paglulunsad 2007: Ikatlong Yugto at Pasasalamat.
Everyone is invited to this grand book launch cum cocktail party happening on December 14, 2007 at the Balay Kalinaw in UP Diliman campus, Quezon City .
The event will highlight six important factors in UP Press, as follows:
- launch of the third installment of book titles for 2007
- introduction of UP Press' new Editorial Board
- announcement of the UP Centennial Books project
- the celebration of UP Press authors who won or became finalists of this year's National Book Awards by the Manila Critics Circle
- the five-year anniversary of UP Press bookstores
- launch of the new UP Press website
The event will start at 6 p.m. Food, music and books will be abundant in this year-end celebration. It is also a way of thanking UP Press patrons and partners.
Ikatlong Yugto will complete the 2007 roster of titles. Some of the titles in this third installment include the following:
- Best Filipino Stories: The NVM Gonzalez Awards 2000-2005 edited by Gemino Abad and Gregorio Brillantes
- Cordillera in June by Ben Tapang
- Defiant Daughters by Rina Corpuz
- Forcing The Pace: The Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas: From Foundation to Armed Struggle by Ken Fuller
- Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature, Issue I edited by Jose Dalisay Jr.
- Mannahatta Mahal: Collected Expatriate Poems by Luis Cabalquinto
- Mostly in Monsoon Weather by Marne Kilates
- Sexuality and the Filipina by Lilia Quindoza-Santiago
- Sawikaan 2006: Mga Salita ng Taon edited by Robert Anonuevo and Galileo Zafra
Some of the authors will be present in the event. Balay Kalinaw is at the corner of Guerrero and Dagohoy streets, UP Diliman, Quezon City (near Ilang-Ilang Residence Hall). Dress code for the party is smart casual.
For confirmation of attendance or for more information, please contact: Ms. Libay Linsangan Cantor (UP Press Special Projects Assistant) 0918 249 5377; 920-6863; libay.cantor@gmail.com
Tag: EVENTS
December 14, 2007
Rica Bolipata-Santos wins Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award 2007
by Arvin Abejo Mangohig Rica Bolipata-Santos' Love, Desire, Children, Etc.: Reflections of a Young Wife won this year's Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. Published in 2005 by Milflores Publishing, Inc., the book is a collection of essays which Dr. Neil Garcia praised for its "candor, grace and humor."
At ceremonies held at the UP Diliman Bulwagang Rizal last December 8, Garcia announced the winner, who was congratulated by UP ICW Director Vim Nadera and Atty. Gizela Gonzalez-Montinola. Bolipata-Santos received a P50,000 check and certificate. She delivered a short acceptance speech as her children rejoiced at her success, her youngest son joining her onstage and bowing like a performer, further endearing them to the audience. She described herself as a "closet writer," talked about the sheer joy of writing as her hand moves across the page, and described her delight when Antonio Hidalgo of Milflores said he was extremely interested in publishing Love .
The award is the only such prize that recognizes literary debuts of Filipino writers and was established in memory of Gonzalo Gonzalez. Previous winners are Elena Sicat, Luna Sicat-Cleto, F.H. Batacan, Sarg Lacuesta, Vince Groyon and Kristian Cordero. This year's panel of judges was composed of Garcia, Jaime An-Lim and previous winner Vince Groyon.
Below is the transcript from Garcia's presentation of the winner and other nominees:
The six finalists for this year's Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award are:
First, Salamanca , a novel by Dean Alfar. This is the only avowed book of fiction to make it to the short list in what has turned out to be the year of creative nonfiction. A verbal conjuration of the magical realist sort, Salamanca is a campy verbal adventure written in Alfar's trademark rambunctious and irreverent prose. In typical postmodernist fashion, this fabulation's impressively scintillant surface-its medium-is quite possibly already the innermost depth of its message.
Second, Barbara-Ann Gamboa Lewis's Barefoot in Fire: A World War II Childhood . This charmingly illustrated, book-length memoir reads like a compelling little novel, whose narrative carefully imparts to the reader a sense of its precocious narrator's unfolding life-a life that is by turns impressionable and courageous, vulnerable and steadfast, reckless and prudent. Like other memorable books of the same genre, Lewis's Barefoot in Fire is an eloquent indictment of the utter evil of war, as well as a moving study of the indomitable human spirit.
Third, Science Solitaire: Essays on Science, Nature, and Becoming Human by Maria Isabel Garcia. This book, possibly the first of its kind in the history of Philippine literary publishing, is an interesting collection of nonfiction essays about science, written in a generous and accessible language. In essay after essay, the author strikes the reader as being at once a naturalist and a philosopher-a student of creation, who intimately participates in the very thing that she observes, and who seeks, in the world's tangible and mutable forms, the harmony and meaningfulness that affirm our deepest sense of being.
Fourth, Kapwa: the Self in the Other by Katrin De Guia. This beautifully produced and capaciously heavy book emerged out of the multi-talented author's dissertation in Filipino Psychology. A singular achievement in intelligent fellow-feeling and scholarly sympathy, De Guia's Kapwa is at once an academic inquiry into the Filipino concepts and rituals of the shared inner self, as well as an intricate interweaving of six, richly textured biographical essays on culture-bearing Filipino artists, whose complex worldviews and lifeways the author painstakingly and passionately brings to light.
Fifth, Helen T. Yap's From Inside the Berlin Wall. A series of letters to her family back in the Philippines, Yap's book traces a narrative arc that articulates the "Pinoy abroad" perspective in a way that is remarkably different from the garden variety travelogue, probably because the author actually resided rather than merely toured in the strange and estranging landscape of East Germany, right before the end of the Cold War. This experience afforded Yap the time to piece together her book's fragmentary but finally singular vision-that of a temporary Filipino exile's haunting and haunted inner world.
And finally, the sixth finalist and this year's winner of the coveted Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award is.
Love, Desire, Children, Etc.: Reflections of a Young Wife by Rica Bolipata-Santos. Published in 2005 by Milflores Publishing, Inc., Bolipata-Santos's first book is a rewarding collection of thirteen thematically unified essays that addresses with uncommon candor, grace, and humor some of life's more mundane realities and mysteries: love and desire, marriage and children, family and friends, teaching and writing. The author treads the uneven terrain of the quotidian with an open compass, unafraid to confront and scrutinize even her own intimate fears and insecurities and confusions. Again and again, in these luminous little personal narratives, what triumphs is a clear-eyed self-understanding, which is utterly convincing because it is earned at the cost of so much soul-searching and inner struggle. In these provocative and well-shaped essays, Bolipata-Santos (following the words of Peter Walsh from Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway ) has taken hold of fragments of her public and private life and turned them round, slowly, in the light, to discover designs that are finally comprehensible, startling, consoling, and wise.
A deeply celebratory book worthy of the Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Award.
Congratulations to all author-finalists, and congratulations to our winner, Rica Bolipata-Santos.
Tag: CONTESTS
December 14, 2007
UP ICW launches LIKHAAN Journal 2007
by Arvin Abejo Mangohig To commemorate the University of the Philippines Centennial, the UP Institute of Creative Writing has launched the LIKHAAN: The Journal of Philippine Contemporary Literature. Asserts editor Dr. Jose Dalisay Jr.: "(N)o Philippine university has produced as splendid, as significant, and as sustained a crop of literary work and talent as the University of the Philippines ."
The journal was launched at the Writers Night last December 8. UP Chancellor Sergio Cao, one of the individuals who made the journal possible, and National Artist Virgilio Almario were on hand to receive the first copies from Dr. Dalisay.
The volume, containing works in Filipino and English, features fiction from Alwin Aguirre, Mayette Bayuga, Catherine Bucu, Amelia Lapena-Bonifacio, Charlson Ong and Socorro Villanueva; poetry from Raymond de Borja, Mikael de Lara Co, Francis Arias Montesena and Joel Toledo; essays by Gemino Abad, Exie Abola and Reuel Molina Aguila; a photo essay by Vim Nadera, drama from Rene O. Villanueva and an interview of National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera.
The LIKHAAN Journal is available for P250.00 at the UP ICW and at UP Press Bookstores.
Tag: BOOK LAUNCH
December 14, 2007
Who are the best young poets in the Philippines?
by Arvin Abejo Mangohig Philippine PEN recently launched At Home in Unhomeliness: An Anthology of Postcolonial Poetry in English . Edited by Dr. Neil Garcia and published by the UST Publishing House, the volume contains 82 poems by 29 of the Philippines best young poets writing in English.
Says Garcia in his Introduction : "(T)hese poems , like the rest of Philippine literature in English, will in fact be largely incomprehensible when decontextualized from the histories that engendered them- particularly, the violent histories of colonization that the Philippines , as a geopolitical and indeed national reality, has endured."
The poets featured are: Michael Balili, Ronald Baytan, Catherine Candano, Jose Wendell Capili, Jennifer Carino, Mark Cayanan, Mikael de Lara Co, Conchitina Cruz, Carlomar Arcangel Daona, Raymond John de Borja, Cecille La Verne de la Cruz, Lourd Ernest de Veyra, Israfel Fagela, Marc Gaba, Ralph Semino Galan, Ramil Digal Gulle, Sid Gomez Hildawa, Joy Icayan, Mookie Katigbak, Kris Lacaba, Paolo Manalo, Arvin Abejo Mangohig, Allan Pastrana, Dinah Romah-Sianturi, Rafael San Diego, Michelle Sarile, Angelo Suarez, Joel Toledo and Lawrence Lacambra Ypil.
Tag: NEWS
December 14, 2007
Notes from the madhouse: Writers Night 2007
By Arvin Abejo Mangohig I knew I had made the right decision not to drink at all at any Writers Night when I heard the usually unflappable Cristina Hidalgo, one of my favorite professors, call out to Gemino Abad over the discombobulating din what was to be my quotable quote for the night: It's a madhouse!
Last December 8, the madhouse was the UP Bulwagang Rizal, its patients congregating at the Teatro Hermogenes Ylagan. Tanduay had already set up their booth for free booze, Figaro theirs for free coffee, the UP Writers Club for (not-so-free) beer. It was a great honor to find out that National Artist Virgilio Almario preferred Pales over Lights. Anvil Publishing sold books, Purefoods sold hotdogs, and the friendly neighborhood isaw guys sold innards.
The reputation of many writers, particularly their mental stability, has never been seen in a favorable light. Thus, the terse Hidalgo conceit. Thus, I, being a writer myself, would have to agree with that popular opinion. It was mad crazy to jampack all those activities in one day, (no, more like eight hours): The Read or Die Komiks Exhibit opening, the Madrigal Gonzalez Best First Book Award ceremonies, an informal commemoration of departed literary great Rene O. Villanueva, the UP Institute of Creative Writing's LIKHAAN Journal launching and finally Writers Night 2007. That on top of The Philippine PEN convention somewhere else in the city and the UP Diliman CAL Alumni Homecoming somewhere else in the campus. UP ICW director Vim Nadera instigated the jampacking.
The UP Writers Club, one of the organizers of the event, managed to squeeze in a very loud, aurally and visually, fashion show (Goth and anime won over Pinoy jologdom, to my extreme disappointment) and a raffle draw for an Ipod shuffle, which yours truly won (to my extreme joy).
Performers, poetry readers and UP students attracted by the lights and sounds weaved in and out of the black walls of the Ylagan. Outside, writers reminisced about good and better times, coerced richer acquaintances to buy them books and cookies and belched cigarette smoke into each other's faces.
Fellows from past UP National Writers Workshops and Creative Writing majors have come to see the annual event as a homecoming to the madhouse, taking advantage of the free food from the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award catering ( Pichi-pichi! Puto!! Kutsinta!!!) and ogling at perennial favorites Tanduay girls in white miniskirts.
It was past midnight. Lourd de Veyra was unceasingly shouting Gin Pomelo at the audience. The horn section was jazz mad crazy. Two guys shadowboxed to the beat of Radioactive Sago Project's hits. One actually hit himself. Some of my friends had decided to go to Rene Villanueva's wake. The thought breathed into me a minute of sobriety. We decided to go home, that other inescapable madhouse.
The UP Academic Oval, jeepless and orange, is mad pretty at night.
Tag: NEWS
December 11, 2007
Call for submissions for Coming Soon
Coming Soon, an anthology of erotic poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction on the loss of virginity. The piece must specifically address a first (human, as opposed to something like bestial) sexual experience.
What we are looking for are pieces that depict an initiation into the sexual act, therefore we will not consider works that try to be coy: for instance, please don't send a piece on how some character/persona discovers there is such a thing as fornication, yet doesn't engage in it. We'd consider that a cop-out. Neither are we looking for pieces on, er, giving one's self sexual pleasure. No, no, no. Works submitted should involve at least two conscious people (no corpses, please!), with an exchange of bodily fluids or whatnot. (If there is no exchange of bodily fluids, the work should address the question: But why the heck not?)
Open to Philippine writers in English and Filipino. Past published works are welcome as long as they have not yet appeared in an anthology.
Deadline: 31 January 2008.
Editors: Conchitina Cruz, Edgar Samar and Katrina Tuvera.
Please send submissions as MSWord documents to comingsoonantho@gmail.com. On the subject line of your e-mail, please indicate your genre (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction) and language (English/Filipino).
Multiple submissions are welcome, but each entry must be sent seperately. Inquiries should be sent to the same e-mail address.
Tag: PUBLICATIONS
December 11, 2007
Textbook on stagecraft to be launched soon Steven Fernandez’s Making Theatre: The Craft of the Stage will be available soon. It narrates experiences pooled from over three decades of production practice creating theatre. The subject fills the need to create productions in inadequate conditions such as ours and treats production as art, science and business.
The book focuses on making use of available resources including physical spaces, artists, organizers, and technology. These resources combine to transform local subjects and aesthetics on the stage. Besides sharing techniques of directing, the book includes parts on how to organize, produce shows in various genres, sell, and appropriately transcreate indigenous materials for theatre.
This test edition will be used by Mr. Fenandez’s Stagecraft classes at the MSU-IIT in Iligan. It starts a series of resources devoted to developing the performing arts outside of the mainstream and empowering our artists in the fringes to be even more productive. Copies are available at the introductory price of P250.00. Making Theatre is published by the Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) Inc.
Steven Fernandez is an award-winning playwright and artistic director.
Tag: NEWS
December 11, 2007
Call for submissions for CFP: The Commons The editors of Currents in Electronic Literacy (an MLA-indexed, peer-reviewed, e-journal) seek manuscripts that address the role or the relevance of the cultural commons for those working, teaching, or living in a mediated age. The term itself has received attention from those on the far left, such as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, to those defending free-market economics, such as Lawrence Lessig. As new media enable us to collaborate, share information, disseminate texts, and pull from the collective and creative resources that the humanities have traditionally celebrated, we face new challenges on a variety of fronts. What are the legal implications of sharing copyrighted (or copylefted texts)? What constitutes "fair use" in an age when most cultural artifacts can quickly be scanned and posted for public consumption? (How) are we ethically and scholastically obligated to evaluate or cite sources that have been read and reviewed by a worldwide community of arguably critical and invested readers? (How) do profit (or exploitation) work when users determine content willfully and energetically?
We encourage submission of scholarly articles and review essays (including reviews of books, software, websites, and conferences) that relate any of the above questions or others not mentioned to the task of teaching and studying literacy.
Submissions for reviews should be approximately 1500 words for individual reviews and 2500 for omnibus reviews of multiple texts or applications and 5000 words for scholarly articles. Submission deadline is December 15, 2007. For questions or to submit reviews email ejournal@lists.cwrl.utexas.edu.
Currents in Electronic Literacy is an online publication of the Computer Writing and Research Laboratory at the University of Texas, Austin. Currents strives to provide a forum for the scholarly discussion of issues pertaining to electronic literacy, widely construed. In general, Currents publishes work addressing the use of electronic texts and technologies for reading, writing, teaching, and learning in fields including but not restricted to the following: literature (in English and in other languages), rhetoric and composition, languages (English, foreign, and ESL), communications, media studies, and education.
Currents in Electronic Literacy (ISSN 1524-6493) is indexed in the MLA International Bibliography and EBSCO.
Tag: PUBLICATIONS
December 11, 2007
Pasko ng Komiks in UP Diliman As part of the U.P. College of Arts and Letters "Linggo ng KAL" event on December 6-14, the U.P. Likhaan: Institute of Creative Writing (UP-ICW) and Read or Die sponsor Pasko ng Komiks or PASKOM symposium on December 11 (Tues), 9am at the Pulungang Claro M. Recto, College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman, Quezon City.
PASKOM will discuss the relevance of comics arts in contemporary Filipino life. Four related topics, which foreground new perpectives on a growing popular arts tradition, will be discussed, namely "Komiks in Philippine Culture and History," "The Study and Collection of Komiks," "Women in Komiks," and "Creating Komiks."
In the morning , Pablo Gomez, Patrick Flores, Gerry Alanguilan, Glady Gimena, Dennis Villegas, and Orvy Jundis will talk on the two first topics. Then in the afternoon, the women artists—Sherry Baet, Ofelia Concepcion, Vivian Limpin, Elizabeth Chionglo, Joannah Tinio-Catinglo, and Gilda Olvidado—will talk about how the feminine and comics arts intertwine toward a liberative cause.
Still later in the day, comics creators Carlo Vergara, Andrew Drilon, Andrew Villar, Carlo Pagulayan, Randy Valiente, Jonas Diego, Melvin Catinglo, Rey Tiempo, KC Cordero and Victor Balanon will unravel the energy and inspiration behind their works.
The day long discussion will be synthesized and commented upon by Bobby Yonzon (Mango Comics), Emil Flores, Joey Baquiran, and Lawrence Mijares.
Prior to the symposium, a comics exhibit, featuring the actual works of contemporary and past comics artists will be on show beginning December 8. It will be set at the Galleries 1 & 2 of Bulwagang Rizal, College of Arts and Letters, UP Diliman.
PASKOM is made possible through the support of National Books Development Board, Powerbooks, Mango Comics, WikiPilipinas, New Worlds Alliance, Read or Die, Komikera, Subway Productions, and the U.P. College of Arts and Letters.
Comics fans, students, and teachers are welcome to attend the symposium and see the exhibit which will run until December 14. For details, call Ms. Eva Cadiz at 9221830.
Tag: EVENTS
December 1, 2007
Writers Night set for December 8
Writers Night on December 8 at the Bulwagang Rizal in U.P. Diliman promises to be more than a chance to meet the idols of Philippine literature. If one stays on long enough, one will actually see many of them do poetry performances. Or sing. Yes, many writers are singers. And band members too. So expect this December affair to be a party experience that will be just as fun and memorable as the previous writers night.
The event starts off at 5:30 pm with the awarding ceremony of the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award at the Teatro Hermogenes Ylagan. This award honors authors whose maiden publications merit an auspicious introduction to modern day readers. Among the sterling nominees are Dean Francis Alfar's Salamanca (novel); Barbara-Ann Gamboa Lewis's Barefoot in Fire (creative non-fiction); Maria Isabel Garcia's Science Solitaire: Essays on Science, Nature and Becoming Human (essays); Rica Bolipata-Santos's Love, Desire, Children, Etc (essay); Helen Yap's From Inside the Berlin Wall (essay); and Katrin De Guia's Kapwa: The Self In The Other (essay).
After the awards, partying begins with performances by invited guests Cesare Syjuco, Heber Bartolome, DJ Alvaro, dancer/choreographer Myra Beltran, zitar player Joey Valenciano, ventriloquist Ony Carcamo, experimental artist Jeena Marquez, Romancing Venus, and poets Marne Kilates and Teo Antonio.
Then, everyone will be in for a surprise as daring writers join a mock fashion show staged by campus groups UP Quill, UP Speca, UP Ugat and UP Writers Club. All in the spirit of carnivalesque play.
Friends and guests of writers, as well as readers and fans are welcome to attend the 2007 Writers Night. For details, call Ms. Eva Cadiz at U.P. ICW, 9221830.
Tag: EVENTS
December 1, 2007
Meritage Press holds annual poetry tilt
Meritage Press is calling on all Filipino poets to join their annual holiday poetry contest. Poet and novelist Eric Gamalinda, author of My Sad Republic and Zero Gravity, is this year's judge.
Interested parties may submit by e-mail, 1 to 2 unpublished poems (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or
or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies) with your full name and contact information to MeritagePress@aol.com (please present poems within the body of the email as the organizers will not open attachments).
There are no limitations to poetry styles or content.
Deadline of entries is on December 31, 2007.
The winning poem/s will be published in the February 2008 edition of “Babaylan Speaks” at http://meritagepress.com/babaylan/. The winners will also recieve a selection of book published by Meritage Press.
Tag: CONTESTS
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