It’s the season for literary awards. When it rains, it pours for Pinoy writers, young and old alike.
Last Friday, the Philippines Free Press started the ball rolling with the handsomest annual cash prizes for fiction and poetry. The next day, Saturday, UMPIL or Unyon ng Manunulat sa Pilipinas (Writers Union of the Philippines) held its yearly national congress and award-giving ceremonies.
Tomorrow, Sept. 1, the 59th edition of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature takes center stage at the Rigodon Ballroom of the Manila Pen. On Thursday, Sept. 4, the winners of the first MTRCB Metro Manila Screenplay Awards will be feted in Gateway Cinema 5 at the Araneta Center.
On Sept. 24, the Manininging Miclat Literary Awards honors the winning poets, 28 years and under, in the three categories of Filipino, English and Chinese. They will receive P28,000 each for their grand prize-winning poetry collections.
It used to be that the National Book Awards for titles published the previous year were handed out by the Manila Critics Circle in conjunction with the Manila International Bookfair held sometime in August or September. But the National Book Development Board (NBDB), one of the few government agencies doing its job right, started partnering with the MCC last year in supervising the conduct of the NBA. This year the awards will be given at the Ayala Museum on Nov. 14.
Congrats to myself, ehem, and all the other winners in the first three events. Here’s a listing, with corresponding excerpts of winning works as well as citations that may be said to suffer no street-cred prob.
In the Free Press awards rite that wound up as a grand bash last Friday at The Deck on Yakal St. in Makati, so heartening was the dominance shown by young writers whose poems and short stories first passed muster under the discerning eye of literary editor Sarge Lacuesta. Ten finalists were announced per category, and everyone was agreed that it was already a mark of distinction to be thus honored. From these finalists — works that were published in the magazine over a 12-month period — the lucky-as-Lotto-winners were drawn, to receive cash prizes of P30,000 for third, P50,000 for second, and P80,000 for first. As I’ve told my Ateneo students in Fiction and Poetry — Hey, guys, one poem or story can get you a brand new MacPro, howzat for inspiration?
The Fiction finalists included Mary Jessel B. Duque, John Bengan (for two different stories), Joy Anne Icayan, Eliza Victoria, Mia Tijam, Sharmaine Galve, Jean Claire Dy, and Dean Francis Alfar. The winning stories were: “Catherine Theory” by Sasha Martinez and “Bad Heart” by John Bengan in a tie for third place; “Marita Pangan” by Menchu Aquino Sarmiento in second; and “Epic Life” by Rhea Politado for first prize. Judges were Charlson Ong, Timothy Montes and Dr. Paraluman Giron of DepEd.
Menchu is an accomplished writer, and like Chari Lucero has been dominating short story contests over the past decade. I’m so proud and happy for Sasha, yet an Ateneo student, and who will definitely work herself up the rankings in the years to come. John is based in Davao but will soon pursue an MBA in The New School in New York, while Rhea is another young writer who has published frequently in FP.
For Poetry, the finalists included Mads Bajarias, Natasha Gamalinda, Sid Gomez Hildawa (for each of two poems), Marie La Viña (also for two poems), Arvin Mangohig, and Rafael Antonio C. San Diego. The jackpot winners were: Mikael de Lara Co in third place for his poem “Mebuyen”; Sid Gomez Hildawa in second for “Poet Talks to an Old Movie”; and Arkaye Kierulf in first for “Textbook Statistics.”
Why, with the exception of our dear departed Sid, who left us on March 30 last year, all these guys are in their mid-to-late 20s. Like Sasha, Marie and Rafael or “Wops” as well as the perennial bilingual award-winner Kael and the breakthrough winner Arkaye are all from Ateneo, have either been my students and/or Dumaguete workshop Fellows, and regulars as Mag:net Katips poetry readers/performers. Wonderful! Congrats to all!
Here’s an excerpt from Co’s poem: “I live in a country without vineyards./ We nail crosses to the trunks of coconut trees/ as we wait for the sap to ferment. ... I live in a country without angels/ or snow, without a word for guilt,/ and we are happy inside our churches/ until the rains come and the rivers swell/ and again we are reminded that, once,/ a goddess watered our country/ with milk from her breasts and the lands/ filled with trees like so many green/ upturned hands.”
And here’s the last half of Hildawa’s winning poem: “... At twenty-four frames per second, you must have/ held me captive, mesmerized for an hour and a half/ under the hypnotic flicker of your slow unreeling,/ inside the liberating darkness of a Manila cinema/ demolished by now. I would enter late afternoons,/ then step out afterwards into a city already dark,/ greeting me with a garland of guilt for letting time/ pass me by, the streetlamps stooping to pick up/ the coin of a moon’s reflection waxing in a puddle./ Who was the lover with me when I first saw you?/ Only you would know. Among hundreds of faces/ staring at the screen as your shadows frolicked/ in the projector’s sun, who held tight my hand?”
I’m particularly elated over Arkaye’s whopping triumph, as we’ve marked him out as an excellent poet in the making. In Dumaguete last May, he came away with lauds from the panelists, which reportedly didn’t sit well with him. I’d caution him over inordinate intensity; he should learn to accept laurels and brickbats both with the thinnest of smiles.
His winning poem is a lengthy one judiciously cut up as couplets. There is so much to the poem that judges Ricky de Ungria, J. Neil C. Garcia and Rep.-to-be Danton Remoto probably couldn’t have helped but declare it a unanimous choice. Here are parts (which may not do justice to the poem’s totality of prized elements):
“Dividing this green earth among all of us/ gives a hundred square feet of living space to each,// but our brains take only one square foot of it,/ along with the 29 bones of the skull, so// if you look outside your window with your mind only,/ why do you hear the housefly hum middle octave, key of F?//... Duration of World War 1: four years, 3 months, 14 days./ Duration of an equatorial sunset: 128 seconds, 142 tops.//...
“Hence the number of happy citizens under the red glow/ of that sun: maybe 50% of us, 60% on the good days, tops.// Number who are sad: maybe 70% on the good days — / especially on the good days. (The first emotion’s more intense, I think,// when caught up with the second.) So children grow faster in the summer,/ their bright blue bodies expanding. The ocean, after all, is blue// which is why the sky now outside your window is bluish/ expanding with the white of something beautiful, like clouds.// Fact: The world is a beautiful place — once in a while./
Another fact: We fall in love twice. Maybe more, if we’re lucky.”
As the highlight capping UMPIL’s National Congress held at the GSIS Museum, the 2009 Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas distinction, lovingly symbolized by a wooden trophy created by Manuel Baldemor, went to six writers for lifetime work. Here they are, along with the citations:
Tomas Agulto for Poetry in Tagalog — “For his poetry and other work endowed with the intensity and metaphor that reflect the inner life and consciousness of those at the fringes of society, that, in so doing, serve as eye-openers for those pretending not to see and are callous to and inconsiderate of others. His work shines a light upon the conditions of the poor but productive and progressive sectors. In his person, he possesses the fierceness and perspicacity of the organic intellectual, procuring his imagination from tradition and communal experience and turning around to offer it to others to equip them with confidence and arm them against the suffering and injurious times.”
Bartolome Tan Chua for Poetry in Chinese — “For his leadership in, advancement, and propagation of modern Chinese poetry in the Philippines, whereby he exerted substantial influence on the country’s young writers in the Chinese language. His work and influence continued from the 1960s, not just in the Philippines but reached audiences in Taiwan. He was able to merge lyricism and realism in works that contained the simple image yet complicated significations in the personal as well as socio-historical domains of the intermixed and interrelated lives of Chinese and Filipinos.”
Mario O’Hara for Dulang Pampelikula or Screenplay — “For his dramatic films of meritorious quality, through which he and his worldview poke at the conscience of a society that closes its eyes on the surrounding mire of oppression and poverty; and his art that seeks the realization of justice within an order that is hopefully humane and democratic. His writing has given face and body to characters that are subject to the most intense anxieties of contemporary history — those brought about by the wars and conflicts that continue to shape the Filipino. At the same time, his writing points to a path leading to the creation of a society that exceedingly respects human dignity.”
Alfred A. Yuson for Fiction and Poetry in English — “For his fiction and poetry that both and interchangeably reach the peaks in the use of language, demonstrating in style and substance a most impressive gentility that is both intelligent and sensitive, literate but worldly-wise, and aware of tradition but stylistically bold and avant-garde. Still, from all the cosmopolitan and urbane manners of his works, which are conversant with the latest of artistic and literary trends and problems, Yuson is at heart still distinctly Filipino, who while hopeful for the Filipino’s place in the world, will not reserve his mordant humor and his keen sense of pointing out his own and his compatriots’ foibles and follies.”
Zeus A. Salazar for Sanaysay / Essay — “For his essays and examinations in the fields of history and the social sciences, where he recognized and gave shape to the concepts of the native identity, consciousness, and the honor of the Filipino. Prominent in his works is the revolutionary worldview expressed by or culled from our heroes and popular movements seeking real freedom. With equal passion and depth of vision, he has also focused his studies on contemporary issues, and thus he has been able to produce a full and shining picture that brings to the fore the innate strengths of the Filipino nation.”
Paul B. Zafaralla for Sanaysay sa Iluko or Iluko Essay — “For his admirable essays, and criticism, that enabled him not only to advance Ilocano art and culture but put forward themes and subjects that have to do with the nation and the world. His studies served the recognition of the Filipino artist and the virtues of his own culture. In giving shape to a Filipino aesthetic, he has been able to demonstrate the rightful truth that it is not only art that may show and spread beauty but the dignity of the Filipino. In using the transformative agency of criticism, he has opened other paths to elevating the human condition.”
The 2009 Gawad Pedro Bucaneg was awarded to Heights, AdMU’s long-running literary journal, “Sa pagiging bukod-tanging Samahan sa Panitikan” — “For its long and persistent support for and encouragement of good writing and literature not only in-campus but in the national arena as well, during the last five decades and up to the present....” And the 2009 Gawad Pedro Bucaneg went to our fave guru Dr. Edna Z. Manlapaz, “Sa pagiging bukod-tanging Guro ng Panitikan” — “For her extraordinary and admirable knowledge of literature, language, and gender studies, along their breadths and depths, that pushed the envelope on the matter of opening minds and improving the humanness of many generations of students and teachers....”
As for the 1st MTRCB Metro Manila Screenplay Awards, the seven student finalists are: Michelle Andrea L. del Rosario of DLSU; Patrick John R. Valencia of UST; Luigina Mari P. Jose of UP Diliman; Anne Margarita R. Teves of FEU; Maica Erika I. Catalan of Technological Institute of the Philippines; Cybelle V. Diones of Polytechnic University of the Philippines; and Mark Ryan G. Duron of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
The first prize that is worth P30,000, second prize at P20,000, and two Honorable Mentions at P10,000 each will be givven as part of the 1st MTRCB TV Awards Night. All of the student-finalists are enjoined to attend the ceremonies, where they will receive their certificates and prizes, and have a chance to meet the players in the movie industry.