Interesting, thought-provoking narratives and wonderful art by Filipino writers and artists were all on hand at the National Book Development Board’s (NBDB) Philippine Book Festival (PBF) held in Lanang, Davao, last August 18 to 20.
The Davao event was the second leg of a series of book festivals organized by the government agency mandated to promote Filipino-created and -published books. The Manila event was attended by nearly 40,000 people and showcased the latest books from Philippine publishers, who also brought their wares to Davao.
Not only the mainstream publishers were there, but also the indies, who provided a gamut of offerings from fantasy to art books. Below are some of those I took home because they were interesting, funny, artistically pleasing, or imaginative.
1. Eleven Eleven: Painting the Challenge and Beauty of Marriage (2022, OMF Literature, Inc.).
In this book, actor and digital content creator Rica Peralejo, writing as Carla Bonifacio, and her husband Joe Bonifacio explore the “tensions of marriage” and explain why it’s important to build a marital relationship based on love, respect, and Bible-based wisdom.
As a couple committed to each other and to God, they reveal, with honesty and candor, their struggles to keep their marriage intact, so that others may learn and be inspired by their victories over depression, trauma, and workaholism, among other challenges that many of us face as well.
2. We Are All Time Machines and Manila Ukiyo-E Art Book by Marius Black, and Guacrico Art Book by Guada Ramos Funtilar (FB and IG: Kuro Saku Studio)
Black (whose real name is Marius Cornelius Funtilar) graduated with a fine arts (painting) degree from the University of Santo Tomas in 2007. His comic books are printed in a small format, a little larger than palm-sized, like zines.
We Are All Time Machines combines his signature colorful, densely-detailed art with poetry in Filipino and English. The paintings in Manila Ukiyo-E are inspired by the art form that flourished during the 17th and 19th centuries that captured the daily, mundane lives of ancient Japanese.
In Guacrico, Funtilar drew ball-jointed dolls singing, playing music, and engaging in games and other simple pleasures that capture childhood memories and the wide-eyed innocence of young girls.
3. The Breaking the Scroll Trilogy by Jane Vergara (2022, self-published, www.javergara.com)
In Breaking the Scroll, The Dark Unveiling, and Return to Akea, Vergara builds a world of high fantasy rooted entirely in her imagination. Fantasy has always been hard to sell to mainstream Philippine publishers unless they are somehow connected, no matter how tenuously, to Filipino folklore and mythology. But what about the works of those writers whose imaginations soar beyond such restrictions to create their own worlds of magic, wonder, and mystery?
Vergara follows where her dreams lead her, and bravely carves her own path with these lengthy novels that follow the adventures of young Kino Amark and his friends Pyper and Mayo across the lands of Akea as they seek to end the Emperor’s brutal rule.
4. Toxic!!! (2020) and Braving Life One Cup at a Time (2016), by Carlo Jose San Juan, MD (www.callouscomics.com)
These are a couple of quirky comic books in the long-running Callous comic strip series written by a doctor about doctors and their life in the healthcare field. “Braving…” is a compilation of Callous comics from 1996 to 2016, while “Toxic” is the fifth book so far.
The strip follows the life of Dr. Rianne Nicah and her guardian duck Cal Duck, who “protects and guides her through life to help her become the best person she could be.”
Dr. Ortuoste is a board member of PEN Philippines, a member of the Manila Critics Circle, and a judge of the National Book Awards. You may reach the author on Facebook and X: @DrJennyO