Writers’ awards galore

Last Thursday, Aug. 31, the 25th National Book Awards were given by the Manila Critics Circle in conjunction with the Manila International Book Fair being held at the World Trade Center off Roxas Blvd.

It’s remarkable that we’ve lasted this long, a quarter of a century, and for that, all NBA winners have to thank Dr. Isagani Cruz, our fellow columnist in this paper, for his dedication and leadership.

Actually, I took a leave from the Critics Circle early this year, on account of a desire to devote more time to my own personal literary production. So I wasn’t in on the yearlong review of books that came out last year, nor in the deliberations that led to the list of finalists and eventual winners.

But I joined the Manila-centric coterie (well, we do have Resil Mojares of Cebu and Fr. Miguel Bernad SJ of Cagayan de Oro, pitching in with their input, mostly by mail) for the awards rite, and helped read the glowing citations for the book winners.

Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. came up onstage twice to receive trophies (well-designed by Tito Castillo) for Best Book in Business and Economics (this category ought to be split up, as it’s something like grouping calamansi and dalandan together) for The Bangko Sentral & the Philippine Economy, edited by Vicente Valdepenas Jr., and the big winner for Art (Alfonso T. Ongpin Award) for Tanaw: Perspectives on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Painting Collection, edited by Ramon Lerma and designed by Studio 5.

A co-winner in the Biz & Eco category was Elfren Cruz for Setting Frameworks: Family Business and Strategic Management. By the buffet table where I presciently positioned myself for buena mano honors once the awarding ended, Elfren confessed that he had heaved a sigh of relief, and disbelief, when his title was called as a winner. He didn’t think a how-to biz book could compete at all with a large tome on the national economy. Well, the MCC recognizes that calamansi can be small and beautiful.

The other major prize, the Juan C. Laya Award for Best Novel, which comes with actual prize money of P20,000 each for Filipino and foreign-language winners, had to be given to the short fiction winners instead: Jun Balde for Calvary Road: Mga Kwento sa Balighong Panahon (UST Publishing House) and Sarge Lacuesta for White Elephants (Anvil Publishing). Hmmm. This non-voting member-on-leave looks forward to two separate drinking sessions courtesy of these brilliant writer-friends.

Dr. Cruz will likely publish the complete list of winners in his own column, so I won’t go down that full list today. Suffice it to recall that Antoon Postma of the Mangyan Heritage Center was cited for his lifelong work benefiting our brother Mangyan poets, same with the Ubod literary first-book series published by the NCCA. And that Anvil Publishing won as Publisher of the Year 2005, while our friend Esther Pacheco, former director of AdMU Press, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, only the second to be thus honored, after Gloria Rodriguez of New Day and Giraffe Books.

Oh, and there were three winners for poetry, since it seems to have been a rich field last year: Becky Añonuevo for Saulado: Mga Tula, Conchitina Cruz for Dark Hours, and J. Neil Garcia for Misterios and Other Poems. All three books were from UP Press.

A day later, on the much-awaited first of September, it was the 56th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature that had the writing community in a bash buzz mode, at the grand ballroom of Dusit Hotel in Makati. Fifty-eight winning writers were honored, more than half as first-time winners.

Nearly a thousand entries were received this year. More than two-thirds of the winners are 40 years old or below, with seven being 21 years old or younger, while one winner is 76 years old.

Our friend Ed Maranan in London, who says he’s coming home for good later this year, was one of three double-winners, meaning he won two prizes, in two separate categories. That should tie him with Rene Villanueva for the most number of Palanca prizes won thus far – something like over 25, at least. It remains a toss-up as to which of these veterans will abandon the hunt, as a gauntlet hurled in the other’s direction.

Jun Lana won another first prize for Dulang Pantelebisyon, his fifth; thus he became this year’s sole entrant into the Palanca Hall of Fame.

Guest speaker was National Artist for Literature Edith L. Tiempo, who was also awarded the Gawad Dangal ng Lahi by the Palanca Foundation. Her address may be found as a separate feature in these pages, the reason why this week’s column is uncharacteristically brief.

We share excerpts from Sylvia Palanca Quirino’s speech titled "A Tradition of Illumination":

"This enterprise of writing... celebrates the life of the mind, as much as it records the nature of human experience. With our country seemingly at a perennial crossroads, there is still so much to celebrate and honor that is happening in our environment....

"How words make up so much of the adventure of living, of coping, of sailing thorough adversity, or when failing to do so, of understanding our plight, and those of our fellowmen.

"The writer is the consummate artist."

Thus spoke "Mom" Edith earlier. She reminded us how the "writer... is committed to the larger view, the integrated view of mankind and the world of mankind."

"Indeed, integration is what we like to think this process is all about – freshly written works rendered judgment by older writers, who show the way and welcome into the path of consummate craft the younger writers, thereby signaling their integration into the community of letters.

"We of the Palanca Foundation would like to think that the tradition we help maintain bids fair to be a significant part of the invaluable process and continuing cycle of integration.

"This is our effort to come up with a ‘beau monde’ for the Filipino writer and reader."

To the winners in the 25th National Book Awards and the 56th Palanca Awards, meritorious congratulations. And let the memory and the hangover be part of our tradition of illumination.