UP Press’ Paglulunsad 2007: Unang Yugto

The University of the Philippines Press launches nine new titles this February 23 at Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines , Diliman. Paglulunsad 2007: Unang Yugto is the first in this year's series of mega-launches. Program begins at 6pm followed by book-signing and refreshments.

The titles to be launched are Edith L. Tiempo's Six Poetry Formats and the Transforming Image: A Monograph on Free Verse; Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo's Over a Cup of Ginger Tea: Conversations on the Literary Narratives of Filipino Women; Antonio Enriquez's Samboangan: The Cult of War; Zosimo's Quibilan, Jr.'s Pagluwas; Bagets: An Anthology of Young Adult Fiction, edited by Carla Pacis and Eugene Evasco; Textual Relations by Ramil Gulle; The Path of the Success of Cooperatives, edited by Eugenio V. Mendoza and Eulogio T. Castillo; A Guide to Families of Common Flowering Plants in the Philippines by Irma Remo Castro; and Manila Men in the New World by Floro Mercene.

These new titles will be available at 20% discount at the launch.

12 Fellows for the 46th UP National Writers Workshop named

LIKHAAN: The UP Institute of Creative Writing has selected the 12 fellows for the 46th UP National Writers Workshop to be held at the AIM Lodge, Camp John Hay, in Baguio City on March 25 to April 1, 2007.

The fellows are: Katrina P. Tuvera and Daryll Jane Delgado (fiction in English); Conchitina Cruz and Mark Anthony Cayanan (poetry in English); Lawrence Ypil, Sandra Nicole Roldan, and Adam David (creative nonfiction in English); Eugene Evasco and Eros Atalia (fiction in Filipino); Jerry Gracio and Edgar Samar (poetry in Filipino); and Jose Dennis Teodosio (drama in Filipino).

Like last year’s successful revitalized workshop, the fellows for this year are advanced writers with previous workshop experience, publications and degrees in literature. Not only will the fellows have to face the rigor of their works being discussed but will, themselves, make a presentation about their poetics.

The teaching panel for this year’s workshop will include UP ICW Director Vim Nadera, Dr. J. Neil Garcia (this year’s Workshop Director), University Professor Emeritus Gémino H. Abad, National Artist and Prof. Emeritus Bienvenido Lumbera, National Artist and Dean Virgilio S. Almario, Dr. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, Dr. Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr., Mr. Charlson L. Ong, Ms. Carla Pacis, Prof. Jun Cruz Reyes, Dr. Lilia Quindoza Santiago, former UP Mindanao Chancellor Ricardo M. de Ungria, Prof. Roland Tolentino, and Prof. Rene O. Villanueva.

The fellows are advised to call the UP ICW at 922-1830 or call/SMS Ms. Eva Garcia-Cadiz at 0927-924-5242 to confirm attendance and other related matters.

Panitikan.com.ph, 1,000,000 hits and counting

The Internet is the temple of the temporal. What you’re staring at your computer right now isn’t real, a solid object, an actual physical thing. It is ethereal. A website is here today, gone tomorrow. Blogs, pages, entire portals disappear into the netherworld of servers, databases, connectors and mainframes. Megabytes of data pour into homes The Matrix-like but awaken no Neos and Trinitys. Only a few sites survive; those who have built up their brand names, those who have amassed regular visitors, those which earn money.

Just a few days shy of its birthdate (February 11), panitikan.com.ph notched up its 1,000,000 hit on February 5, 2007. The visitor may have been from the Philippines. Or he or she could have been from China, Japan, the United States of America or Qatar. The mega-hit passed unbeknownst to him. It was actually history in the making.

Panitikan.com.ph began in the last few months of 2005 but had been envisioned by Vim Nadera long before he was UP ICW director. Proposals and website designs were hewn and crafted by its hopeful staff even without the guarantee of the project actually pushing through. Finally, in December of that year, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts gave the nod.

More than three hundred author profiles, five hundred literary works, and countless news articles later, panitikan.com.ph got its millionth visitor on a Monday, the weekday which has the largest percentage of visitors. It was only a matter of time. Just this year, the website’s record high reached over 8,000 hits a day, up by 2,000 from last year’s record.

Up for project renewal this year, the website plans to expand to Visayas and Mindanao even as it attempts to record the comings and goings of Filipino literati and more anthologize literary works and. This push to augment and expand bodes well for Philippine literature as panitikan.com.ph strives to be its face in the chaos and ephemera of the Internet. Posterity and certainty are values, in the realm of the Internet, which are all the more sought after.

By Arvin Abejo Mangohig
Panitikan.com.ph Project Coordinator

First two legs of Pagpupugay successful

National Artists for Literature Edith Tiempo and Alejandro Roces recently wrapped up their Pagpupugay hometown legs last February 2 and 3 respectively.

Tiempo was honored at the Luce Auditorium in Silliman University. The Silliman University Kahayag Dance Troupe interpreted Tiempo’s works. Poets Cesar Ruiz Aquino, Ian Casocot and Matilde Hescock read their favorite poems of hers. Tiempo also delivered the keynote speech “Sharpening the Two Poetry Basic.” Over eight hundred people were there to witness the tribute to the well-loved poet and critic.

Alejandro Roces was honored at the Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro. “Of Cocks and Roces,” by the Integrated Performing Arts Guild as directed by Steven Patrick Fernandez, was presented, an obvious nod to Roces’ more popular work. The SRO crowd also enjoyed Roces’ lecture on Philippine Short Stories. NCCA Executive Director Cecile Guidote Alvarez was on hand to deliver a special message.

The Pagpupugay sa Pambansang Alagad ng Sining sa Panitikan is a project of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, the UP Institute of Creative Writing and Pambansang Samahan sa Wika Inc. Virgilio Almario, Bienvenido Lumbera and F. Sionil Jose are set to deliver their own lectures in their hometowns.

Below are the schedule for the remaining lectures:

Bienvenido Lumbera
February 15, 9am
Lipa City Youth and Cultural Center, Lipa City, Batanagas
Paksa: Ang Lipa sa Aking Paglikha
Magtatanghal: Dulaang UP

F. Sionil Jose
February 23, 1:00pm
Presidencia (Rosales, Pangasinan)
Paksa: Fiction in the Philippines
Magtatanghal: Tanghalang Pilipino

Virgilio Almario
February 28, 2pm (tentative)
Holy Angel University Plaza San Jose Main Building, Angeles, Pampanga
Paksa: Ang Tula Bilang Pagbuhay ng Pambansang Gunita
Magtatanghal: Barasoain Kalinangan Foundation

by Arvin Abejo Mangohig