That tragic demise led to the establishment of the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, Inc., or MMAFI, headed by Meynard Halili as chair and Herman T. Gamboa as president, with Alma as executive director and Edna Manlapaz and Mario among the directors.
Thanks to the energy and dedication of its founders, the Foundation has already published a commemorative book honoring the memory of Maningning, titled Beauty for Ashes, a selection of her own poems in the three languages, translations of these, and supplementary works from various writer-friends and supporters.
A superb website, www.maningning.com, has also recently been launched, featuring many of Maningning’s visual art and literary works. We’re betting that this website will be contending favorably for a webby award soon.
Some weeks back we got together over lunch with Dr. Gémino H. Abad and Marne Kilates, our fellow members in PLAC or the Philippine Literary Arts Council, to deliberate over the entries in the English division. Invited to serve as judges, we had earlier received copies of the contestants’ manuscripts, which came up to a surprising total of 36 entries, from 8 to 15 poems each.
Having gone through the entries and conducting our initial deliberation that day, we agreed that a good number were of such high quality that we needed yet another meeting, or, well, another free lunch, to arrive at our final choice for the top prize that was worth P28,000 for each division. Come to think of it, the prize money wasn’t bad for a young poet who still had to enter his or her Saturn cycle of emotional duress.
We also agreed that seven of the entries would compose our final shortlist, from which we’d select the top prize, which also meant a precious collectible of a trophy sculpted by no less than Julie Lluch, and a couple of honorable mentions, with these awardees to receive certificates and gift sets of books.
The final deliberation was conducted after another excellent lunch, for which no card had to be swiped, nor any cash taken out of anyone’s fat wallet. This took place at the home of Meynard and Linda Halili, our gracious hosts for the historic day.
The verdict was unanimous. While any of the seven in our shortlist could have won the top award, three stood out. In terms of selection titles and pseudonyms, these were "Reclamation" by Sebastian Elcano, "One Drop of Breath" by Gericault, and "Reluctant Firewalker" by Luthen Tinuviel. The last was our common choice for the First Maningning Miclat Poetry Award for the English division.
The other four among the finalists – and this is for the benefit of these fine young poets who ought to take heart that their submissions were considered entirely positively – were "Notebook" by Aurora, "Church of the Meek" by Dahong Ligaw, "Histories and Cartographies" by Hamstr Villarama, and "Last Night" by Exiled in Guyville.
We also agreed that we would further honor the three top winners by reading a poem each from their entries at the awards night. Their names would then be announced, and the top winner proclaimed.
Eventually we were to learn from Alma who our chosen winners were. My, were they all quite young, very young. And this is as good a place as any to say that in our own generations, our peers and ourselves had not been this talented so early.
Gericault turned out to be Rodrigo V. dela Peña, who only turned 21 last December. He has pursued a BS in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology for three years at UP Diliman, but is currently a non-major. He enjoyed a fellowship for poetry at the 40th UP National Writers’ Workshop held in Baguio City.
Sebastian Elcano was in reality the precocious Angelo V. Suarez, who is still four months away from turning 19. He is an incoming sophomore majoring in literature at UST. He won first place for Poetry in English in both the 2001 and 2002 Ustetika Awards for Literature, and is the president of the Thomasian Writers Guild and literary editor of The Flame (a UST publication).
And our top winner with the Tolkienese pseudonym of Luthien Tinuviel was Naya Valdellon, who’s also only 21, at least until her Libran birthday. She graduated in 2002 with a BFA in Creative Writing from the Ateneo de Manila University, where she served as associate editor of Heights and received the Dean’s Award for the Arts for her accomplishments in poetry. She was a poetry fellow at the 38th UP National Writers Workshop in Baguio and the 41st National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete. Last December she won first prize in the San Francisco-based Second Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest.
As a sample from her collection, here’s an excerpt from Valdellon’s poem "Woman in Verses," which was what Dr. Abad chose to read at the awards rite:
"This year’s return to the town/ of my birth has made me conceive/ how some things have not changed – / the same women can still be heard/ chanting the passion, the pious/ are at their pews, the contrite/ hide behind the confessional screen/ atoning for moments of passion/ while the procession moves on.// No need to join those penitents/ lashing rivers and rivulets of red/ on their backs – these women have/ known pain, their songs may as well/ have been written in their blood/ first spilling at the body’s ripening,/ tender skin tearing at the willing/ bite into the fruit of desire, labored/ breathing at the womb’s harvesting.//…"
It’s a mature poem, already regnant with the subtleties of articulation, its solid structure relying on consistent nine-line stanzas (five of them) with a balanced dependence on run-on lines, enjambments and other features of astute line-cutting. Then too its soft, steady cadence is in keeping with its cerebral theme, while the imagery remains simple if not starkly familiar. It is a preconceived, deliberately cognitive poem, belying the tender age of the poet.
What must also be said is that the quality of gravitas and thematic concerns in Valdellon’s entry, apart from the sure versifying hand and assured lyric voice, may have been her slight edge over the other finalists. But they too, to a man and woman, have shown that their level of maturity belies their years.
Thus it was that on that Friday, the sets of winners received their prizes in a simple but meaningful ceremony highlighted by the presence of UP president Francisco "Dodong" Nemenzo who delivered very brief remarks, the turnover by National Artist Napoleon "Billy" Abueva of the sculpture bust he had done of Maningning, and the musical numbers rendered by Aba Dalena and Rock Bato, Joy Abalos and Chaitanya Aquino of the San Miguel Chorale, and Maningning’s younger and equally talented sister Banaue.
No first prize was awarded for the Chinese poetry division. Two honorable mention prizes were declared, however, for "Passersby and Other Poems" by Cheng Yue, a 21- year-old lady from Beijing, China, and "If You Wish and Other Poems" by Chen Pingsha, also a lady at only 16 years, from Fujian Province.
The board of judges for the Chinese division was composed of Shirley O. Lua, chair and associate professor of the Department of Literature of De La Salle University, herself a poet and member of the writers’ group ALON, and managing editor of American Studies-Asia published by DLSU; James Na, the literary editor of the local Chinese newspaper World News, who has authored five books of poetry in Chinese, and served as a board director of UMPIL or Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipinas (Writers Union of the Philippines); and John Sy, who has also authored several books, including translations into Chinese of short stories by Filipino authors such as Nick Joaquin and N.V.M. Gonzales.
For the Filipino division, the judges were Teo T. Antonio, Roberto T. Añonuevo and Vim Carmelo E. Nadera.
Antonio is acknowledged as a poet laureate in Filipino. He has authored several poetry collections, for which he received the prestigious SEAWrite (SouthEast Asian Writers) Award. He has also served as an UMPIL board director, and is current chair of UNTAP or Unyon ng mga Tagasalin ng Pilipinas (Union of Translators of the Philippines).
Añonuevo, the Tiger Woods of Philippine poetry in Filipino for his early grand slam feat, is the youngest to enter the Palanca Hall of Fame for five first-prize triumphs. He has been a National Fellow for Poetry of the UP Institute of Creative Writing, a SEAWrite awardee, author of several collections, and is currently vice chair of UMPIL.
Nadera is an associate for Filipino poetry of the UP Institute of Creative Writing, assistant professor at the Departamento ng Filipino of UP, author of poetry books, and currently UMPIL secretary general.
"Sa Lungsod Namin" by 26-year-old Joselito D. delos Reyes won the top award for the Filipino division. The ever-smiling Joey is a member of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA), UMPIL, Oragon Poets’ Circle and Bolpen at Papel. He was a fellow at the 1999 Rio Alma Poetry Clinic and the 36th UP National Writers Workshop. He gained second place at the 1999 Gantimpalang Lira, honorable mention in 2000 KWF Gantimpalang Collantes, and was a finalist in the 2000 Film Development Foundation of the Philippines scriptwriting contest.
The honorable mention prizes went to "Ilahas at iba pang Bitag ng Dalisay" by 25-year-old Mesandel Virtusio Arguelles and "Lamina" by 24-year-old Mayo Uno Martin.
Arguelles is a member of LIRA and Oragon. He was a fellow in the 1999 UP National Writers Workshop and a Talaang Ginto awardee for poetry. He has published his first book of poems, Menos Kuwarto (Pithaya Press, 2001).
Mayo Uno, the son of our friend Boy Martin, graduated with a BA Comparative Literature degree at UP Diliman. He writes for Malaya and is a bass player of the Purple Chickens Band .
We recall that a similar 28-and-under poetry contest, confined to English, was mounted over a decade ago, with ourself being the administrator. It was called the Procyon Prize, with the prize money in dollars provided by Fatima Lim Wilson who was then based in Seattle, and who had wanted to show her appreciation for the way her own delicate poetry had developed in the Philippines. Our memory goes short of identifying the winners, however, or whether that prize even had a second edition.
Now, with the obvious harvest of young talents drawn out by the Maningning Miclat awards, we are convinced that the torch will continue to be passed for poetry in our country, both in English and Filipino.
While initially the MMAFI announced that the poetry award would give way to a visual arts contest on alternate years, the success of the poetry contest has convinced its founders that for next year, both contests will be held. As Alma Miclat has vowed, "We will just have to try harder in raising more funds to ensure that we continue to bring honor to our young poets and artists, in memory of dear Maningning."