Writers' village rises

On a high slope of Mt. Talinis, at Camp Lookout in Valencia, a town about 30 minutes from Dumaguete City, stands a writer’s village which was inaugurated Saturday. Built as the Silliman University Rose Lamb-Sobrepena Writers Village, it is also at last, the permanent home of the Edilberto K. Tiempo and Dr. Edith L. Tiempo Creative Writing Center.

The project’s inauguration was timed with the closing program of the 49th Silliman National Writers Workshop. For three weeks, this summer, 15 young fellows from different parts of the country had met at the village to bare and polish their creative endeavors — poems, short stories and novels in-the-making. They had come to fulfill what the workshop’s eminent director-in-residence, Dr. Rowena Tiempo-Torrevillas, told them, of their lending each other “a sense of community, to make ourselves feel we are not entirely alone on that singular voyage as we seek to find words to fill the blank page.” The workshop, said Dr. Torrevillas, “also seeks to provide maps to make the voyage a little easier.”           

So many voyagers have been guided in their journeys at the workshops to become some of the country’s best creative writers. At least from 12 to 15 persons attend the annual workshops founded by the illustrious Tiempo couple — the late novelist Edilberto, and the poet Edith, National Artist for Literature and Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee in Literature and Creative Writing.

From the workshops emerged possibly 600 men and women who are now recognized and made famous through national awards and their writings. Among them: STAR columnist and novelist Krip Yuson; poets Cesar Aquino, Marj Evasco, Danny Reyes, Bobby Villegas, Danton Remoto, Myrna Pena Reyes, Simeon Dumdum Jr., and Anthony Tan; fictionist Susan Lara, and novelist Miguel Syjuco, author of “Ilustrado,” which won the 2009 Man Asian book Award.

Some of the country’s established writers have served as panelists and visited the workshops, lending their wordsmith-wisdom and ears to the struggling fellows: the Tiempos, of course; Franz Arcellana, Kerima Polotan, Nick Joaquin, Ricaredo Demetillo, Gemino Abad, and  Leoncio Deriada.

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The writers village, set among huge and old trees and overlooking (which explains the name Camp Lookout) Tanon Strait, and nestling under stars seemingly so low one could reach them is nothing less than a gift of love from Atty. Ike Sobrepena, to his beloved wife, the former Rose Lamb, who had not attended any of the Tiempo workshops, but has written a children’s book, a compilation of columns in Zamboanga newspapers, a book of poems, an autobiography, stories of people, a bridal primer, and a book of recollections. Ike donated the money for the center’s construction, with the encouragement of the late Quintin “King” Doromal, Silliman’s third Filipino president, whose wife Pearl, had learned so much about poetry  from her close friendship with Edith, and come out with her own book of poems. At the inauguration, Dr. Ben Malayang, current Silliman president, proudly talked of the center’s serving as an eloquent demonstration of the university’s insistence on excellence.

Rowena, who came all the way from Iowa to direct this summer’s workshop, talked of Ben’s goal “to build an arts campus, with the creative writing center as its heart. A couple of years ago, during the workshop’s closing dinner, he spoke of his dream about having a writers’ village. The astounding generosity of the Sobrepena family made this dream possible. Rowena was sent a video of the groundbreaking, and she thought, from her “gaze across the world,” that it would be at least a year before any of the plan to build would materialize.”

To Rowena’s astonishment, the village and its facilities were completed and ready for use by the 49th session of the Workshop. “It was like a palace materializing out of the 1001 Arabian Nights.” And  she mentioned “local” genies making it come into being  from the English department, Eve Mascunana, Alana Narciso, Lady Flor Pantosa, and Moses Atega.

Seated very quietly in her chair, but taking in every word said at the program, her eyes twinkling, was Edith Tiempo, a legendary beauty in her younger days and still so now, in her early 90s. The novelist and poet and literature professor who had pushed students into falling in love with the written word, was gently pushed to the front to hand the 15 49th workshop fellows their certificates, and told each of them to write, write, write, that she will watch out for the writings of the fellows, namely, Anne Carly Abad, Miro Frances Capili, Kelly Marie Conlon, Ida del Mundo, Cristina del Rosario, Gino Dizon, Jacob Walse Dominguez, Samantha Echavez, Carlo Flordeliza, Gilda Isobelle Galang, Aaron Jalalon, Gian Lao, Dominique Santos, Oscar Sequina Jr., and Jenette Vizcocho.

 (To be continued in my next column)

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On another front, a non-poetic, but concerns body and soul wellness, will take place on Saturday, May 29, at Flor’s Garden in Antipolo. This will be the second Natural Farming & Urban Gardening series, to be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Participants will learn all about natural farming and urban gardening, making natural fertilizers for household or commercial use, and vermin composting. This series is sponsored by the FINEX Research and Development Foundation, Inc., through its environment committee co-chaired by Manny Duenas and Adele Jaucian. Trainor will be Teresa G. Perez of Natural Farming Advocate Earthkeepers Learning Farm of Tiaong, Quezon. Seminar fee is P1500 per person; a 20 percent discount will be enjoyed by groups of five persons. For more information contact Cherry S. Basilio at 811-411-4052 or [email protected].

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