EVERY few months or so I do a listing of the latest literary events that should prove of interest to readers and writers of Philippine literature.
Here are details about a call for submissions from Visayan and Mindanaoan writers, an upcoming writers’ workshop, and a children’s book summit.
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Payag Habagatan (Southern Hut), an inaugural literary home for emerging voices from the southern Philippines, is now accepting poems, short stories (both literary and genre fiction), flash narratives, creative nonfiction/literary essays (memoirs, personal essays, travel writing, and other hybridized forms), and critical essays in English and/or in Binisaya languages that speak of a sense of place and placelessness.
Contributors must be emerging writers born or based in the Visayas and Mindanao.
This soon-to-be launched online and free-access literary journal comes from the necessity to serve as a critical, counter-canonical platform to the hegemony of mainstream gatekeeping institutions, assert multifaceted constructs of identity in the literatures from the southern Philippines, and abolish center-periphery orientations in the “national” literary landscape.
Submissions, either previously published or unpublished, may be any of the following: one poem (not more than 70 lines each); one flash narrative, i.e. flash fiction and flash nonfiction (500-1000 words); one short story (2,500-4,000 words); or one literary essay/creative nonfiction (2,500-4,000 words).
Critical essays about works and writers from the Visayas and Mindanao (1,500-4,000 words in the MLA format) are also welcome.
All prose submissions should be in Times New Roman font size 12, double spaced, in MS Word format. For previously published works, indicate publications where these have appeared. Copyright of the works remains with the authors.
Send manuscripts as email attachments to payaghabagatan@gmail.com together with the author’s full name, email address, mobile number, home address, and a short bionote in the email’s body. Submissions are welcome all throughout the year.
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The University of the Philippines’ Likhaan: Institute of Creative Writing is now accepting applications for the second Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio Writers Workshop.
Twelve fellows will be accepted, six writers in English and six in Filipino. Application is open both to published and unpublished writers who are between 18 and 35 years old as of Aug. 15, 2017.
The workshop is set for Oct. 6 to 9, 2017. Successful applicants will receive a modest stipend, as well as board and lodging at the workshop venue in Quezon City.
This year’s focus is on young adult literature. This refers to work written specifically for a teenage audience. A work in this genre usually has a young protagonist and presents that young person dealing with issues that other young people face (for example: belonging, falling in love, or deciding what to do in the future).
Works may also tackle issues that young people are afraid they may have to face (ex., violence, drug dependency, alcoholism, being alone, death of a loved one, pregnancy, or the separation of parents). Young adult literature incorporating speculative elements are also welcome.
Entries must be two unpublished stories (in English or Filipino, but not a combination of both) with a length of 3,000 to 10,000 words per story; a suite of three to five poems; or a one-act play. The portfolio must be accompanied by a short bionote, not more than 150 words, and an author’s photo. The author’s name must not appear anywhere on the submitted work.
Email the complete portfolio to albw.workshop@gmail.com no later than July 21, 2017.
For more information, contact landline 981-8500 (loc. 2117) and look for Isa Lorenzo, or email albw.workshop@gmail.com.
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The National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) are organizing the Philippine Children’s Book Summit in celebration of National Children’s Book Day.
This year’s summit, themed “Laging Bago ang Mundo ng Libro,” will be held on July 22, 2017, at GT Toyota Asian Center, University of the Philippines-Diliman from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The biennial literary summit aims to create a platform for discourse on the different issues of creating and promoting children’s content in the country. It is open to teachers, educators, students, readers, children’s literature enthusiasts, and aspiring artists and writers.
Visit booksphilippines.gov.ph and the NBDB and PBBY Facebook pages for the program and more information. Admission to the event is free. Register at ncbdph@gmail.com.
Dr. Ortuoste is a California-based writer. Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @jennyortuoste, Instagram: @jensdecember, @artuoste