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This Publisher's
Column shall feature developments related to
Filipino literature. Each monthly update also
shall include a featured poet and poem. For
comments and suggestions, please e-mail Meritage
Press at meritagepress@aol.com
January 7, 20102009 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry ContestMeritage Press is delighted to announce the results of the 2009 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest, judged by Aileen Ibardaloza: First Place: “Butiki” by Michelle A. Penaloza ABOUT THE WINNING POET: Michelle Peñaloza graduated from Vanderbilt University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Oregon. She is a carnivore and a sometimes omnivore. Her work has been published in Kartika Review. Congratulations to Michelle for writing the following fabulous poem:
***** FIRST PLACE WINNERS of the MERITAGE PRESS HOLIDAY POETRY CONTESTS: 2009: Michelle A. Penaloza (Judge: Aileen Ibardaloza) December 18, 2009NINTH ANNUAL POETRY CONTESTDear Filipino Poets Worldwide: You are invited to submit to a fun poetry contest. No submission fees. E-mail submissions. Details below: NINTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST ABOUT THE JUDGE: ABOUT THE CONTEST: There are no limitations to poetry styles or content. All types of poems are welcome. By Filipino, we include part-blooded Filipinos. We are now taking submissions up to the deadline of Jan. 5, 2010. Only previously unpublished poems are eligible (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies). PRIZES: The FIRST PLACE WINNER also will receive SELECTED FILIPINO TITLES: traje de boda by Aileen Ibardaloza; the book is forthcoming in 2010 from Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com) PRAU by Jean Vengua; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/prau.htm MUSEUM OF ABSENCES by Luis H. Francia; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/museum.htm KALI’S BLADE by Michelle Bautista; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/kalis.htm THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, co-edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku2.htm PINOY POETICS; A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics, edited by Nick Carbo; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/pinoypoetics.htm THE THORN ROSARY: SELECTED PROSE POEMS 1998-2010 by Eileen Tabios; the book is forthcoming from Marsh Hawk Press, New York, in 2010 THE BLIND CHATELAINE’S KEYS by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.blazevox.org/bk-et.htm I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://marshhawkpress.org/tabios2.htm MENAGE A TROIS WITH THE 21st CENTURY by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.ourownvoice.com/books/2004xpress.shtml REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.marshhawkpress.org/backlist.htm FINALISTS: PREVIOUS WINNERS: For questions or more information, you can email MeritagePress@aol.com November 3, 2009THE 2009-2010 FILAMORE TABIOS, SR. MEMORIAL POETRY PRIZE!Meritage Press Announcement Meritage Press, a multidisciplinary literary & arts press based in San Francisco & St. Helena, is pleased to announce the recipient of The 2009-2010 Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize (”Prize”): Karen Llagas, with her manuscript entitled ARCHIPELAGO DUST. Congratulations to Karen, whose book is scheduled to be published in 2010 by Meritage Press. The Prize results from a global competition among Filipino poets; more information about the Prize is available at http://meritagepress.com/babaylan/?p=19 . As regards the Prize’s recipient, Karen Llagas’ poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Crab Orchard Review, {m}aganda magazine, Broadsided Press, Quay and Wompherence, as well as in the anthologies Field of Mirrors (PAWA, 2008) and Poems of the San Francisco Bay Area Watershed (Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010). A recipient of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize in 2007, she holds an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers and a BA in Economics from Ateneo de Manila. She lives in San Francisco and works as a small business consultant, a Tagalog interpreter & instructor, and a poet-teacher with the California Poets in the Schools (CPITS). ARCHIPELAGO DUST will be her first poetry book. Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com) also would like to congratulate the following Finalists, listed in alphabetical order of authors’ last names: Loved Letters: Mailed Without a Scent of Home by Niki Eskobar Meritage Press would like to thank all the poets who participated by sharing their poetry manuscripts. We are honored to have read all of the poems, and are delighted to conclude that the high quality of participation bodes well for the future of Filipino-authored poetry. Eileen R. Tabios, Publisher, Meritage Press +++++ Click on http://www.meritagepress.com/prau.htm for information about the inaugural recipient of THE FILAMORE TABIOS, SR. MEMORIAL POETRY PRIZE: Prau by Jean Vengua. February 16, 20092008 Meritage Press Annual Holiday Poetry ContestMeritage Press is delighted to announce the results of the 2008 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest, judged by Bino A. Realuyo. Only one poem was chosen this year: First Place: “Letras Y Figuras” by Rodrigo V. Dela Peña Jr. The winning poem itself may be seen at http://meritagepress.blogspot.com/2009/01/2008-winner-of-meritage-press-annual.html (in order for the poem’s correct format to be presented). ABOUT THE WINNING POET: Rodrigo V. Dela Peña Jr. has been a fellow for poetry in various writers’ workshops in the Philippines. His poems and stories have been published in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Mud Luscious, Sunday Inquirer Magazine, Philippines Free Press, and other journals and anthologies. He is currently working as a freelance writer and publicist. ***** ALL FIRST PLACE WINNERS of the MERITAGE PRESS HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST: 2008: Rodrigo V. Dela Pena Jr. (Judge: Bino A. Realuyo) February 2, 2009“The 2009-2010 Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize”Meritage Press, as sponsor, is pleased to announce A Call For Manuscript Submissions by Filipino Poets for “The 2009-2010 Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize” DEADLINE: August 31, 2009 POETRY MANUSCRIPTS: Poets may submit as many manuscripts as they wish. Each manuscript should be at least 48 pages long. Each manuscript should come with two cover pages: (i) a cover page with Title, Author’s Name, E-mail Address, Snailmail Address and Phone; and (ii) a second cover page with just the Title. (Manuscripts will not be returned so don’t send your only copy(ies).) We are only taking printed (not emailed) manuscripts. Manuscripts should be sent to: Eileen Tabios PRIZE: The winning manuscript will garner U.S.$500.00 for its author and be published by Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com). SUBMISSION FEE: None because Meritage Press prizes all poets…and we consider Poetry a Gift. OPTIONAL: If you include $5.00 with your entry, you can get a free copy of the prior winning book, Jean Vengua’s PRAU ($5.00 covers U.S. domestic shipping/handling; if you wish to avail yourself of this offer and you live outside the U.S., email us first to discuss). ELIGIBILITY: Poets of full or partial Filipino descent, living anywhere around the world. All such poets are encouraged to send your best work. Whether you’re an “emerging” vs “established” poet is irrelevant as judging will be based only on the merits of the submitted manuscripts. JUDGING PROCESS: From the submissions, a group of Finalist manuscripts will be chosen by Eileen Tabios. From the Finalists, the winning manuscript will be chosen by Beatriz Tabios. Judging for the top winner will be done anonymously. ABOUT THE JUDGES: FOR FINAL WINNER: Beatriz Tabios received her B.A. with English as her major from the Silliman University in Dumaguete, Philippines. She developed her love for poetry as a sixth-grader reading Homer, William Shakespeare, John Keats, Alexander Pope, William Wordworth and Samuel Coleridge while trying to survive World War II. She would further develop her appreciation for poetry as a college student instructed by poet Edith Tiempo, the first woman to receive the title of National Artist for Literature in the Philippines. The late Dr. Edilberto Tiempo, then the head of the English Department, encouraged Mrs. Tabios to continue her study of English and American literature. With Edilberto Tiempo’s encouragement, Mrs. Tabios wrote her Master of Arts thesis which was the first investigation, regarding Filipino literature, of “(The Use of) Local Color in Short Stories in English.” Later, she taught English literature at Dagupan College (now University of Pangasinan) and University of Baguio, before becoming a teacher at Brent School, a boarding school initially built for children from U.S.-American military, missionary and gold-mining families stationed in the Far East. THE FILAMORE TABIOS, SR. MEMORIAL POETRY PRIZE: BOOK PRIZES: THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II coedited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young. PINOY POETICS: A COLLECTION OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL & CRITICAL ESSAYS ON FILIPINO AND FILIPINO-AMERICAN POETICS, edited by Nick Carbo. THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES by Eileen R. Tabios. SMALL PRINT: Meritage Press reserves the right not to pick a winner and hand out the prize. ***** ADDITIONAL QUERIES may be directed by email to Meritagepress@aol.com January 7, 2009EIGHTH ANNUAL POETRY CONTESTDear Filipino Poets Worldwide: You are invited to submit to a fun poetry contest. No submission fees. E-mail submissions. Details below: EIGHTH ANNUAL (BELATED) HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST ABOUT THE JUDGE: ABOUT THE CONTEST: There are no limitations to poetry styles or content. All types of poems are welcome. We are now taking submissions up to the deadline of Feb. 15, 2009. Only previously unpublished poems are eligible (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies). PRIZES: The FIRST PLACE WINNER also will receive SELECTED FILIPINO TITLES: THE GODS WE WORSHIP LIVE NEXT DOOR by Bino A. Realuyo; for more information about the book, go to http://www.uofupress.com/store/product31.html PRAU by Jean Vengua; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/prau.htm MUSEUM OF ABSENCES by Luis H. Francia; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/museum.htm KALI’S BLADE by Michelle Bautista; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/kalis.htm THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, co-edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku2.htm PINOY POETICS; A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics, edited by Nick Carbo; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/pinoypoetics.htm BABAYLAN: AN ANTHOLOGY OF FILIPINA AND FILIPINA AMERICAN WRITERS, co-edited by Nick Carbo and Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.auntlute.com/babylan.htm NOT EVEN DOGS, the inaugural hay(na)ku poetry collection by Ernesto Priego; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/notevendogs.htm THE BLIND CHATELAINE’S KEYS by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.blazevox.org/bk-et.htm THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://marshhawkpress.org/tabios3.htm I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://marshhawkpress.org/tabios2.htm MENAGE A TROIS WITH THE 21st CENTURY by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.ourownvoice.com/books/2004xpress.shtml REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.marshhawkpress.org/backlist.htm BRIDGEABLE SHORES by Luis Cabalquinto; for more information about the book, go to http://www.artbook.com/1885030347.html FINALISTS: PREVIOUS WINNERS: For questions or more information, you can email MeritagePress@aol.com January 14, 20082007 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry ContestMeritage Press is delighted to announce the results of the 2007 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest, judged by Eric Gamalinda. The results include this contest’s second time for a tie for “First Place”, and also the first repeater for “First Place”: First Place, Co-Winner: “First Winter Passing” by Naya S. Valdellon Naya S. Valdellon is this contest’s first poet to receive “First Place” twice, the prior time occurring in 2002 when she tied with Michella Rivera-Gravage in the contest judged by Oliver de la Paz. The 2007 results also feature our first non-English language poet winner. Unfortunately, Eric Gamalinda felt he was only able to assess the Tagalog entries, and so entries in other Filipino languages were not included in the judging. Judge Eric Gamalinda says about the winning entries: “First Winter Passing” is a lovely poem about how language connects and disconnects, and how it is nearly impossible for many of us to bridge this solitude except perhaps through poetry and its spectral silences. “O.N.S.” is deceptively old-fashioned like a kundiman, but fused with a naughty, graphic eroticism and a verbal precision that no translation can do justice—by lines 7-9, I was captivated by its masterful lyricism. “An Explanation” is a quiet, elegant little poem that feels like an iceberg: beautiful, mysterious, larger than it seems. I apologize to those who sent poems in other Filipino languages that I couldn’t read; I had to exclude them from the competition, and thus only judged the Tagalog-language poems. Here are some information about the winning poets: Naya S. Valdellon is currently finishing her M.A. in English major in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. Her chapbook of poems, The Reluctant Firewalker, was published by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as part of its UBOD New Authors Series in 2005. Her poetry has received the Hart House Poetry Prize, the Maningning Miclat Award, and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature. Marcel L. Milliam is Ilonggo by birth but Capiznon by association. He is the founding Chairman of “Yanggaw”, The Capiz Writer’s Circle, and a member of the “Dagyang Pulong” Iloilo Writers Group. He works for GMA TV6 in Iloilo as a talent under the ETV Department. He writes poetry mainly in Hiligaynon, but produces pieces in English and Filipino as well. After receiving fellowships from the 1st Fray Luis De Leon Creative Writing Desk of the University of San Agustin, Iloilo, “2nd Panagsugat” Writers workshop of UP Vis-Min, 12th Iligan National Writers Workshop of the MSU-IIT, and the 7th Iyas National Writers Workshop for his Hiligaynon poems, he has now “crossed-over” into fiction. He has won twice the NCLA-VI “Paktakontxt” of the NCLA-VI, consecutive wins in the UPV SWF Bigkas Binalaybay sponsored by the NCCA from 2003-2007, both in the Pagbigkas at Pagsulat Categories. His works have been published in four issues of SanAg, the official literary Journal of the Fray Luis De Leon Creative Writing Desk of the USA-Iloilo as well as in the 33rd ANI of the CCP and numerous other local and national publications. At present he is a 3rd Year student in the Bachelor of Laws Program (Llb.) of the University of Iloilo College of Law and is actively involved in the works of the Alternative Law Groups Inc. (ALG) and was a paralegal intern of the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB), Cebu. When he miraculously has free time, he is also involved with the Iloilo theater scene as a stage actor. R. Torres Pandan has been a law school dean for ten years and a partner in the biggest law firm in Bacolod City, Philippines for 16 years. He has won the Palanca Awards for poetry and his first book of poetry was short-listed for the 2005 National Book Awards. He is also the Research Director of the Philippine Supreme Court’s JURIS project on mediation. We are pleased to share the winning poems: First Place, Co-Winner by Naya S. Valdellon: First Winter Passing “the tangled language of those who always stuttered as they spoke, caught as 1. Daylight Saving Time Thirteen hours between Toronto and Manila— The hands of the clocks in my room ache to be moved— Dali’s watches wilt in the waning light, in the poster what’s another hour to lose while we loosen our tongues, above our faces. Ants kiss on top of the stopwatch. 2. Tell me about your country. A constellation of islands Tell me what it looks like. A crouching old woman I don’t mean on a map. You mean from a plane? I’m not asking for it. No, you’re better at imperatives. 3. The man I love has faith in words. 4. Silver white winters that melt into springs— Here, his fingers skate on my skin. My blood hisses and expensive. His tongue teeters over kita , his way into my archipelago. Later, our breaths 5. News from Manila My father had a stroke Of bad luck 6. I’m writing him a card, a catalogue 7. Write the truest sentence you know. I have true thoughts every two minutes. All languages sound lovely until you hear their words for shit. Winter makes us all look like impostors. It’s impossible to get lost in this city of grids and signs. There are too few original thoughts and too many translations. Everything I love has an expiration date. 8. At the bakery, the women behind the counter One of them looks at me icily, their circle I hold the bread to my chest, negotiating ***** FIRST PLACE, CO-WINNER by Marcel L. Milliam: O.N.S. Unan mo’y mga bisig ko Salikop ng labi mong bumibigay buhay Buong lakas kong naisambulat Ngunit haring araw, lulok na sa kanyang trono ***** HONORABLE MENTION by R. Torres Pandan: AN EXPLANATION He counted fifty-nine swans I don’t believe Yeats erred He likewise found the odd male ***** ALL FIRST PLACE WINNERS of the MERITAGE PRESS HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST: 2007: Naya S. Valdellon & Marcel L. MiIliam (Judge: Eric Gamalinda) November 24, 2007SEVENTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY POETRY CONTESTDear Filipino Poets Worldwide: You are invited to submit to a fun poetry contest. No submission fees. E-mail submissions. Details below: SEVENTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST ABOUT THE JUDGE: ABOUT THE CONTEST: There are no limitations to poetry styles or content. All types of poems are welcome. We are now taking submissions up to the deadline of December 31, 2007. Only previously unpublished poems are eligible (you may, however, submit poems that you have featured on your own web sites or or blogs, or that have been published in limited edition chapbooks of no more than 250 copies). PRIZES: The FIRST PLACE WINNER also will receive SELECTED FILIPINO TITLES: AMIGO WARFARE by Eric Gamalinda; for more information about the book, go to http://www.cherry-grove.com/gamalinda.html (Patrick Rosal and Eileen Tabios discuss Eric’s amazing book, AMIGO WARFARE, at http://galatearesurrection8.blogspot.com/2007/11/two-books-by-eric-gamalinda_30.html and http://galatearesurrection8.blogspot.com/2007/11/two-books-by-eric-gamalinda.html PRAU by Jean Vengua; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/prau.htm MUSEUM OF ABSENCES by Luis H. Francia; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/museum.htm KALI’S BLADE by Michelle Bautista; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/kalis.htm THE FIRST HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, co-edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku.htm PINOY POETICS; A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics, edited by Nick Carbo; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/pinoypoetics.htm THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://marshhawkpress.org/tabios3.htm I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://marshhawkpress.org/tabios2.htm MENAGE A TROIS WITH THE 21st CENTURY by Eileen Tabios; for more information about the book, go to http://www.ourownvoice.com/books/2004xpress.shtml BRIDGEABLE SHORES by Luis Cabalquinto; for more information about the book, go to http://www.artbook.com/1885030347.html AND SELECTED MERITAGE PRESS POETRY TITLES: THE OBEDIENT DOOR by Sean Tumoana Finney; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/obedientdoor.htm OPERA: Poems 1981-2002 by Barry Schwabsky; for more information about the book, go to http://www.meritagepress.com/opera.htm 100 MORE JOKES FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD by John Yau and Archie Rand; for more information about the book, go to http://meritagepress.com/100morejokes.htm FINALISTS: PREVIOUS WINNERS: For questions or more information, you can email MeritagePress@aol.com February 21, 2007MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT We are pleased to announce the recipient of “The Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize” is JEAN VENGUA for her manuscript, PRAU. Ms. Vengua (Santa Cruz, CA) will receive a U.S.$1,000.00 prize and PRAU will be published by Meritage Press (www.meritagepress.com) for a release date in Fall 2007. We would like to thank the poets who participated in this contest. We read many wonderful poems by other participants. In particular, we would like to acknowledge Finalist/Second Place Winner Edgar B. Maranan (Quezon City) for the lovely lyricism and imagery displayed in his manuscript, STAR MAPS & OTHER POEMS. Submissions were screened by Eileen R. Tabios to generate Finalists’ manuscripts. To determine the winner, manuscripts were reviewed on an anonymous basis by Beatriz Tabios to ensure that judging was based solely on the merits of the poems themselves. We are pleased to present below some samples from Jean Vengua’s winning manuscript PRAU, and hope you will remember her entire book — as it turns out, her debut poetry book — when it is released later in 2007. FROM PRAU: THE PAPER HOUSE Because back then, I truly did not care. I want to return to the fold. This is the text, these are the tears along the creases of time. If time is that room, and an interior of paper and ink, which some say is “not limited,” then I must have built it all myself, and furnished it with my loneliness. I became beautiful in a manner of speaking, and without adequate protection against intrusions, I framed and latched the windows and thought this is myself. So, if you don’t mind or even if you do mind, I’ll return to the hundred rooms mansion, and put on the ornate cuffs and collars left by my changeling masters and mistresses. I will lock the doors tightly. I am all yours, O. ****************** NIGHT DIARY She removes her clothing before going to bed. Mind your manners. Say nothing. Say little. It’s late. Tiny adjustments all day long. In the night the body, the meat diary, remembers certain conversations. ****************** THE PROBLEMS (2) I barely know what I’m writing; it’s true. Something comes out of “reality.” Some letters; something is missing, and we know it. The sound of that engine is indifferent to humans, like a dog nosing garbage. Aching for some taste of something. Fat and the heat it generates. Beuys understood this. Or the assemblage and movement of parts. What might be fashioned from it? Still the old bird keeps trilling. Mimicking the bird next door. Mimicking, in fact, the door. Something opening and closing on squeaky hinges. Nothing is new, or should be. ****************** TURNCOAT position the bird in a side pocket or put it to sleep in poetry. step right up to the shining path. a broken column is pinned to the collar bone, pillar to support her head. she paints a portrait, enlarges upon puddles hidden behind creative writing, drips tears onto a palette, rips open her camisa de dormir. there are two fine breasts cleaved up the middle, and crowning the brow a hairy sliver of moon. the bees are joined in marriage behind literature, european. i kiss your hand, madelaine. i eat your cookies. she unstraps her camisa de fuerza. el corazón beats between science and the mystery of moths and myths. there is cooking for my mother’s rosary, juvenile for our apocalypse. choose your color, advance one square, retreat six. cambiarse la camisa is to change categories. in fiction, one must cross two rivers, being careful to avoid the black holes, center stage. fall forever into universe, tell a story, make place. ****************** THE HOKUM FLOWER this in the moment this is beef stew to do this is not listening flowering in my gut & transcendent protein i will listen i will i promise January 19, 20072006 MERITAGE PRESS HOLIDAY POETRY CONTESTMeritage Press is delighted to announce the results of the 2006 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest, judged by Michelle Bautista. The results: First Place: “Atonement” by Joel M. Toledo Note that the First Place and Third Place poems are written by the same poet; this results from that the contest was judged anonymously — that is, based solely on the poems themselves. Meritage Press received many lovely poems for this year’s contest, and we also are delighted to recognize the other stellar finalists: Finalists: Judge Michelle Bautista has this to say about the poems: 1. “Atonement” - I really love how, when I read this, I suddenly find myself listening for the sound of crickets even in the middle of the city. And the last pair of stanzas that speak to a shared primal need. 2. “The foundress” - I love the transition between images and how the writer carries us from one to another, from splinters to paste to glasswings and prisms. The image of the hourglass at the end asking the reader to find the sense of time in the poem. 3. “Contact “- I love the relationship of the zoologist to the sedated wild animal, relating the animals fangs to his grandmother’s hands, a sense of fear, curiosity, excitement to face the wild animal with an intimate connection. 4. “Psalms on the Evening News” - I love the community created in this scene of the isolated insomniacs contemplating God. There is simultaneously attachment and disconnection. Here are more information about the winning poets: Joel M. Toledo has an M.A. degree in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, .where he also holds undergraduate degrees in Journalism and Creative Writing. He is a faculty at the Department of English of Miriam College, Quezon City. He was the 2nd prize winner of UK’s 2006 Bridport Prize for his poem, “The Same old Figurative”. In 2005, he won first prize for his poetry collection, “What Little I Know of Luminosity” in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. He was also awarded 2nd prize for his poetry entry in the 2004 Palanca Awards. Joel is the recipient of the 2006 National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Writers Prize for poetry, a grant for the writing and possible publication of his first book of poetry. Ivy Alvarez is the author of Mortal (Washington, DC: Red Morning Press, 2006) and three chapbooks: ‘what’s wrong’, ‘catalogue: life as tableware’ and ‘Food for Humans’. She is also the editor of A Slice of Cherry Pie, a chapbook anthology of poems inspired by David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Her poetry appears in journals and anthologies worldwide and online. Marie La Viña was a fellow of the 2004 Dumaguete National Writers’ Workshop and the 2005 UP National Writers’ Workshop. She graduated from the Philippine High School for the Arts in 2004 and spent the next two years figuring out what to do next. She is currently a freshman philosophy student at the Ateneo de Manila University. We are pleased to share the winning poems: First Place Atonement Where they are exactly, no one knows. Far off, in the cities, people are making do the fireflies are satisfied with their nature, announcing its presence by the pond, But the crickets, weak and ready as if they want to be found, as if Troubled and sleepless, I step out to look for them, harsh sounds, and the unseen crickets, nearby or simply because the night would be too silent by me. This is the call of both the wild of God, our natural need to be heard, forgiven, ***** The foundress in these paper cells the six sides the dark and I gather the wood to me and spit my little hands grey paper there is beauty in my belly my glass wings I marry the thin hum suspended exposed the small blind lives deep into the catacombs the sky brings its sting ***** Contact To be sedated, handled with fingers, I think of the young zoologist, his first time with the animal of his wildest dreams. hooves, wings, the pointed and useless fangs, the sun exposes everything, alights gently ***** “Psalms on the Evening News” So they say, People shouted his name in the streets, and there was no reply. Brothers, sisters, |
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