Celebration: An Anthology to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Silliman University National Writers Workshop Sands and Coral, 2011-2013
Silliman University, 2013
Naa nay ni-daog! More than ten years ago, I led a very strong writing group in Dumaguete called LitCritters Dumaguete. When it was still fairly active, we launched a bet: the first member to win a Palanca will get P500 from all the members [pero wala ko'y labot, hahaha]. We actually already have a literary winner in F Jordan Carnice, who won the Nick Joaquin Literary Prize for Poetry twice in a row, but ang sabot Palanca man. This year, Lyde Sison Villanueva finally wins that bet! Congratulations, Lyde! Maygani nagpatuo ka nako to send an entry this year! We are so proud of you.
Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway Time Share by Neil LaBute Rice Wine by Wilfrido Nolledo The Varieties of Romantic Experience: Graduate Work in Desire by Robert Cohen
Last week
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger New England Primer by Donald Hall We Won't Cry Over This by Socorro Villanueva
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.
The Dumaguete Group meets every Sunday at 1 p.m. in Gabby's Bistro.
A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger New England Primer by Donald Hall We Won't Cry Over This by Socorro Villanueva
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.
The Dumaguete Group meets every Saturday at 9 a.m. in Gabby's Bistro.
Great God. I'm finally done with the layout! (Well, almost. There's still the copy-editing, and tying up some loose ends...) But what a great battle it has been with InDesign CS4. Dark Blue Southern Seas 2009, which is dedicated to Dr. Edith Lopez Tiempo, is edited by F. Jordan Carnice, with yours truly as adviser and layout artist. The new issue features the literary works, art, and photography of...
Gémino H. Abad Dean Francis Alfar César Ruìz Aquino Kris Dave Austero Jan Paulo Bastareche Lawrence Bernabe Eliora Eunice Bernedo F. Jordan Carnice Ian Rosales Casocot Darwin Chiong Phillippe Credo Carlomar Arcagel Daoana Michelle Eve de Guzman Marguerite Alcarazen de Leon Rodrigo dela Peña Jean Claire Dy Mariekhan S. Edding RV Escatron Marvin Flores Ralph Semino Galan Deil Jossaine Galenzoga Gilbert Agustin Ganir Carlos Arsenio Teves Garcia Christine Godinez-Ortega Cristine Pantoja Hidalgo Luis Joaquin Katigbak Marie La Viña Susan S. Lara Gabriela Lee Francis C. Macansantos Katherine Macaroy Robert Jed Malayang Timothy R. Montes E. P. Ortega Ned Parfan Myrna Peña-Reyes Michael Regalado Danton Remoto Celeste June Rivera Raszceljan Luiz Salvarita Zakiyah Sidri Sonia SyGaco Ramon Yasunari Taguchi Anthony Tan Yvette Tan Marianne Tapales Mia Tijam Rowena Tiempo Torrevillas Janet Villa Miguel Ybañez Ernesto Superal Yee Lawrence Ypil
12:46 PM |
Because I Will Actually Miss The Mokongs. (Damn Graduation!)
The past two years, come graduation time, have been hard. I've grown very close kasi to a number of students I could very well call my friends. After this year, there will only be a few left. Those who already have (Dirgy, RJ, Michelle, Lyde, Jazz, Clyde, Lycar, Ray Donn, Aiken, Hope, The Dulnuan Bunch, Magenta, and so many others) or will soon be passing through the portals of Silliman to exit towards their own post-collegiate lives will become part of an irretrievable past no amount of reunions can ever make happen again. And it's sad. But also happy, the fact that I have somehow become part of some young people's lives.
So guys -- Jordan, Marianne, Cessy, Pong, Micah, Matti, Kim, Bryan, Marvin and the rest of the Physics Boys, Gerard, Dom, RC, and all the rest -- you know I mean this with the deepest love and affection: maayo unta'g mangahagbong mong tanan.Wahahaha! (Wink.)
Dumaguete LitCritter-at-large Anthony Gerard Odtohan takes to directing a short comedy! (Who would have thought of that?) Starring his new girl! For his media studies class! In my old alma mater, the International Christian University in Tokyo! (Boy, his room reminds me of my old room...)
Time Share by Neil LaBute Secretary by Mary Gaitskill The Enormous Radio by John Cheever The Princess of Nebraska by Yiyun Li
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature. The Dumaguete Group meets every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Silliman University President's Home.
The beauty of Facebook is stumbling on the photoshopped shenanigans of people you know. LitCritters Dumaguete (composed mainly of former students of mine) has not met for some time because of the demands of too many things. Sometimes I do wonder about what they do when they're not pouncing on a story. These are two answers...
They go all over the country and get promptly stressed out on the road...
Or they drink to oblivion...
This picture of Marianne (above, near center, with one eye shut from too much, uhm, Red Horse*) is utterly priceless. Ehehehehe.
*A disclaimer: They will claim this is just a fun photo-shoot for a lampoon issue of The Weekly Sillimanian. Riiigggghhhtttt.
I almost forgot to share these photos from the LitCritters session the other Saturday, in our usual haunt: the garden/veranda of the Silliman President's campus home, which is increasingly becoming a gathering place of sorts among many Sillimanian students. (That's a good sign for the kind of presidency we have, eh?) Palanca-winning fictionist Lakambini Sitoy (one more first place finish, and she'll be in the Hall of Fame...) was around to answer the Dumaguete LitCritters' questions about the craft and the writing life. Bing has been home in Dumaguete for some time now, trying to finish a novel, and teaching on the side. (We sometimes go off for coffee together to complain about our students, hehehe...)
And the delicious cake is courtesy of Eliora, who was celebrating her birthday.
A Filipina Writer’s Story Intricate Forces Lines Mens Rea The Injury Zone The Sisterhood Secret Notes on the Dead Star
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature. The Dumaguete Group meets every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Silliman University President's Home.
Paul's Case by Willa Cather The Problem of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry Haircut by Ring Lardner
Last Saturday
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury To Build a Fire by Jack London The Spectacles by Edgar Allan Poe Tangled Notes in Watermelon by Diane Curtis Regan
Last, last Saturday
Frozen Delight by Marguerite Alcarazen de Leon Logovore by Joseph Nacino A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell A Place I've Never Been by David Leavitt
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature. The Dumaguete Group meets every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Silliman University President's Home.
A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury To Build a Fire by Jack London The Spectacles by Edgar Allan Poe Tangled Notes in Watermelon by Diane Curtis Regan
Last week
Frozen Delight by Marguerite Alcarazen de Leon Logovore by Joseph Nacino A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell A Place I've Never Been by David Leavitt
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature. The Dumaguete Group meets every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Silliman University President's Home.
The past two weeks have been a period of tying up loose ends for LitCritters Dumaguete, and we all vowed to finish what we needed to finish, as well as brush away some of the post-holiday funk that settled in -- and made us lazy. We kinda miss Michelle as well, and so five campus writers -- Celeste June Rivera, Zakiyah Sidri, Emarrah Contessa Sarreal, Eliora Bernedo, and Hannah Lynn Creencia -- have joined the LitCritters starting last week as intensive auditors, hopefully to soon fully join the group, if they can make the commitment. I've asked my graduate class in creative nonfiction -- Bron Teves, Sonia Sygaco, and Alfred Casipong -- to join in the fun as well: the tools they will learn from analyzing the craft of fiction-making they also can utilize in their own nonfiction writing, anyway. And because they have a deeper knowledge of things literature, hopefully they can help the rest of LitCritters in seeing things in newer perspectives.
Frozen Delight by Marguerite Alcarazen de Leon Logovore by Joseph Nacino A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell A Place I've Never Been by David Leavitt Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Over the past few weeks
The Pink Slip by Jan Paulo Bastareche Brandon’s Affair by Rodrigo Bolivar Dramas and the Intercession of Something Dim by Fred Jordan Carnice Waiting Days and Story Nights by Fred Jordan Carnice Group Study by Ian Rosales Casocot The Fish Connection by Michelle Eve De Guzman The Tragedy of the Overreaction by Robert Jed Malayang Fiesta Breakfast by Anthony Gerard Odtohan Sweet Mistakes by Marianne Catherine Tapales Katana’s Song by Lyde Gerard Villanueva Sweet Baby by Justine Megan Yu
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature. The Dumaguete Group meets every Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Silliman University President's Home.
This week, we bid farewell to Michelle who's going home to Naga after having graduated from Silliman University. We just gave her a farewell dinner tonight. She will be missed -- but her stories will still keep on coming.
I have some wonderful LitCrit news!Andrew Drilon's Lines and Spaces has been shortlisted in the comics category of the FullyBooked contest, and the wonderful Kate Osias has a story, "The River Stone Heart of Maria Dela Rosa", out in Serendipity magazine. Do check it out.
For the next LitCritter challenge, we've set ourselves to conquering the universe beyond our writing comfort zone. A masculinist will find himself writing a believable and effective melodrama, perhaps in the style of Douglas Sirk. An ardent feminist will find herself writing a believable and effective story with a chauvinist pig for a narrator. Somebody who flails at dialogue will have to write a story using that device as the most prevalent element in her story. Somebody who disdains domestic realism will have to embrace it. Somebody who feels at home with spiritual themes will have to write a dark story about faith, in a world without God. Somebody who feels at home with homoerotic elements will have to write a testosterone-filled story, the likes of a Hong Kong shootout fest. The challenges go on. There are eight of us in LitCritters Dumaguete. Me? I'm supposed to write a funny story. Something truly humorous, in the vein of Alejandro Roces and Woody Allen. It's hard. Humor has no design, and simply refuses to be laid out in a formula. Something is either funny or not. The factor that matters is unknowable. So God help me.
How does one begin to write a funny story? Tell me, and comment away.
The Killers by Ernest Hemingway Dead. Nude. Girls. by Lori Selke
Last Tuesday
A lecture on Formalism and New Criticism
Last, last Tuesday
The Injury Zone by Lakambini Sitoy Burn Your Maps by Robyn Joy Leff The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdich The Two Hundred Fifty-Seventh Page by Nicolas Lacson
Last, last, last Tuesday
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges Stories by Cesar Ruiz Aquino The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami The Second Bakery Attack by Haruki Murakami
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.
The Dumaguete Group meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Cafe Antonio in The Spanish Heritage along Avenida Sta. Catalina.
The Injury Zone by Lakambini Sitoy Burn Your Maps by Robyn Joy Leff The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdich The Two Hundred Fifty-Seventh Page by Nicolas Lacson
Last Tuesday
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges Stories by Cesar Ruiz Aquino The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami The Second Bakery Attack by Haruki Murakami
Last, last Tuesday
Character Encoding by Baryon Tensor Posadas Cathedral by Raymond Carver Door 59 by F.H. Batacan
Last, last, last Tuesday
The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen My Brother's Peculiar Chicken by Alejandro Roces The Royals of Hegn by Ursula K. Le Guin Rude Kate by July Lewis
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.
The Dumaguete Group meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Cafe Antonio in The Spanish Heritage along Avenida Sta. Catalina.
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges Stories by Cesar Ruiz Aquino The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami The Two Hundred Fifty-Seventh Page by Nicolas Lacson The Second Bakery Attack by Haruki Murakami
Next Tuesday
Silliman University Founders Day Break
Last Tuesday
Character Encoding by Baryon Tensor Posadas Cathedral by Raymond Carver Door 59 by F.H. Batacan
Last, last Tuesday
The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen My Brother's Peculiar Chicken by Alejandro Roces The Royals of Hegn by Ursula K. Le Guin Rude Kate by July Lewis
Last, last, last Tuesday
The Book of Things Which Must Not Be Remembered by C. Scavella Burnell The Hours Before Sunrise by William Congreve The First Dream by Robert Jed Malayang The Dead Girl's Wedding March by Cat Rambo
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.
The Dumaguete Group meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Cafe Antonio in The Spanish Heritage along Avenida Sta. Catalina.
Character Encoding by Baryon Tensor Posadas Cathedral by Raymond Carver Door 59 by F.H. Batacan
Last Tuesday
The Whore of Mensa by Woody Allen My Brother's Peculiar Chicken by Alejandro Roces The Royals of Hegn by Ursula K. Le Guin Rude Kate by July Lewis
Last, last Tuesday
The Book of Things Which Must Not Be Remembered by C. Scavella Burnell The Hours Before Sunrise by William Congreve The First Dream by Robert Jed Malayang The Dead Girl's Wedding March by Cat Rambo
The LitCritters is a reading and writing group based in Manila (moderated by Dean Francis Alfar) and Dumaguete. Every week, we read and discuss several pieces of short fiction from various genres from different writers with the goal of expanding our reading horizons, improving our ability to critique, and learning how to write from the good texts. In addition to speculative fiction, we read Philippine literature in English, as well as world literature.
The Dumaguete Group meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Cafe Antonio in The Spanish Heritage along Avenida Sta. Catalina.
1:00 PM |
A Palanca for Lyde!
