Literary milestones

Congratulations are in order for some of our writer-friends, from Diliman to Manhattan.

Last Thursday, the Third NVM Gonzalez Award was handed out at the Vargas Museum in UP Diliman. The top prize of P50,000 for the best published short story was split up between Antonio Hidalgo for his short story "The Man Who Sold Dreams" and Soccoro "Migs" Villanueva for her short story "We Won’t Cry About It." Both stories appeared in Philippines Free Press magazine. The judges were Dr. Gémino H. Abad, Cirilo F. Bautista, Aida Rivera Ford, Johnny Gatbonton and Neal Cruz.

Both winners have been racking up literary awards of late. Migs won the Palanca First Prize for the same story last September, while Tony also won a Palanca last year for his Future Fiction piece titled "The Second Coming."

Both of Tony Hidalgo’s prize-winning stories are included in his recent collection, A Song for My Brother & Other Stories, from Milflores Books. Tony himself courageously heads this independent publishing entity, which has come out with best-selling titles such as the recent release, Suddenly Stateside: Funny Essays on Pinoy Life in America by Marivi Soliven Blanco, and The Milflores Guide to Philippine Shopping Malls, an anthology that includes inputs from 27 well-known writers.

Some months back, concern was expressed that with the demise of the Philippine Graphic’ s literary pages, the Free Press would become the only national weekly that published short fiction, with the occasional exception of Panorama magazine whenever it found some space. Since only published stories were accepted for the NVM Awards, it would then practically turn into a Free Press literary contest. Well, literary journals published by educational institutions were also allowed to submit entries. But it remains far-fetched to expect a campus writer to compete on even terms with nationally published literary artists.

We suggested to dear Narita Gonzalez some months back that the contest format be modified to allow the submission of unpublished stories. But of course we realized that this could open the floodgates and render a grave challenge to the judges’ collective eyesight.

Last year, the NVM Awards featured two categories, the additional one involving first published stories. Migs Villanueva also romped off with the first prize in that category. This lady has certainly proven to be a worthy product of the UP’s creative writing course and national workshops, together with Carmen Aquino Sarmiento who won the major prize in the same awards last year. Indeed, Sarmiento and Villanueva have become major voices that consistently strengthen Philippine fiction in English.

Well, now that Charlson Ong is back from the International Writing Program in Iowa City, where he represented us since September together with premier poet Marjorie Evasco, we can expect new stories to come out of the experience. We’re sure Charlson will also set one in New York’s Chinatown, and/or San Francisco’s, plus one more in Honolulu where he and Marj had their last special engagement (at the University of Hawaii, courtesy of poet-professor Elynia Ruth Mabanglo) on their homebound reading tour.

Charlson was the first recipient of the NVM Awards, for the year 2000. Here’s welcoming back Sir Charles, as well as Sir Butch Dalisay, the latest Pinoy writer to be knighted at the Villa Bellagio by Lake Como in Italy, which experience should provoke, er, inspire, our fellow Philippine Star columnist to come up with fresh fiction on, say, old cheese?

Today, half a globe away, at the cultural epicenter that is the Big Apple, the Fifth Annual Asian American Literary Awards will fete another old buddy, poet-writer-journalist Luis Francia, whose book Eye of the Fish has been declared one of three winners of the prestigious annual awards given by the Asian American Writers’ Workshop.

Co-presented with the Asia Society which invited Luis over last year for a talk and reading at the Filipinas Heritage Library, the activity starts at 7 p.m. at the Asia Society and Museum on 725 Park Avenue, New York City. Readings will be conducted by Francia and his co-winners Alexander Chee and Christina Chiu, before they start signing their prize-winning books. A keynote speech will be rendered by poet and activist Suheir Hammad.

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop, which counts Pinoy Nuyorkers Eric Gamalinda, Bino Realuyo and Luis Cabalquinto among its pioneer stalwarts, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the creation, development, publication and dissemination of Asian American literature. The Workshop publishes books on Asian America, The Asian Pacific American Journal, and a literary magazine entitled Ten. It also sponsors readings (last October it was the visiting firewoman Marj Evasco), offers creative writing workshops and fellowships to aspiring Asian American writers, and operates The Asian American Bookseller – the most comprehensive collection of Asian American books and magazines in the USA.

Also being honored in the fifth awards ceremony is Fil-Am poet Oliver de la Paz, whose book Names Without Houses (Southern Illinois Press) is a finalist for the AAWW Members Choice Award, together with Alexander Chee’s Edinburgh (Welcome Rain Press) and Don Lee’s Yellow (W. W. Norton).

The Members’ Choice Award is given in recognition of the title chosen by AAWW members as their favorite among members’ books that came out last year. The winner will be announced at the ceremony.

A collection of prose and verse, Names Above Houses already won the 2000 Crab Orchard Award for Poetry. Oliver de la Paz has taught creative writing at Arizona State University, Gettysburg College and Utica College. His work has appeared in outstanding journals such as Quarterly West, The Asian Pacific American Journal, and North American Review.

Soon Oliver will also serve as the lone judge of this year’s Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest, to which Fil-Am and Filipino poets are invited to submit one or two entries of any style to MeritagePress@aol.com.

The deadline is Dec. 31, but contest organizer Eileen Tabios who’s based in San Francisco says they’re accepting submissions starting yesterday. Last year’s winning poem was by our very young friend Carlomar Arcangel Daoana, whose entry was selected by Fil-Am poet-judge Nick Carbo.

Here’s the rest of the info provided by Tabios:

"No submission fee. Any style or form of poetry is acceptable. Emerging poets are encouraged. The first-prize awardee receives a copy of Oliver de la Paz’s Names Without Houses and Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole: Selected Prose Poems 1996-2002 by Eileen Tabios (Marsh Hawk Press, 2002). Other lovely books to be awarded include two recent titles featuring poets and artists: er, um by Garrett Caples and Hu Xin, and 100 More Jokes from the Book of the Dead by John Yau and Archie Rand. Sponsors are Meritage Press and the NPA (New Poets Army).

"Send no more than two poems. Please include your full name along with your e-mail address. However, the poems will be sent without your names to judge Oliver de la Paz, thereby allowing the poems to be read on their own merit. All poets are welcome to submit (emerging poets are especially welcome). Only previously unpublished poems are eligible. You may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies.

"The judge may choose other finalist-winners, depending on the quality of the submissions. The winner(s) will have their poems published in the February 2003 edition of Babaylan Speaks at www.MeritagePress.com."

So, okay, congrats again to Tony Hidalgo, Migs Villanueva, Luis Francia and Oliver de la Paz. Y’all certainly do our fiction and poetry proud.

Oh, before we forget, Sir Jimmy Abad asked us to remind literature lovers to attend the annual Writers Night that is a dragdown yearend revelry organized by Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing. It starts at 6 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 6, at the UP Executive House. Beers will be provided by big-ticket sponsors courtesy of writers Erwin Castillo and Wilson Lee Flores.

Emcees are livewires Googoo de Jesus and Ed Cabagnot. Likhaan Director Virgilio Almario will be auctioned off for the bidder to do with as she/he pleases on a full-moon date. No truth to the rumor, however, that Christie’s and/or Sotheby’s is set to jack up the gavel price to attract a bid for permanent acquisition by the GSIS.