The Spy in the Sandwich

Sunday, April 13, 2025

9:00 AM | Four Days of Stories, Four Days of Literary Fellowship—A Litany of Thanks

As of this writing, it has been eight days since we started the 2nd Dumaguete Literary Festival, and five days since we saw it come to a very satisfying end. We’ve had some rest, and we’re still basking from the plethora of thanks we’ve been getting from our guests and from our attendees. The most satifying one has to come from the novelist Jose Y. Dalisay Jr., who sent this missive post-festival: “Mabuhay at salamt! One of the best literary festivals I’ve been to (and I’ve been to a lot!) Simple lang, pero masaya!”

We were gunning for that, truth to tell—the simplicity of it all, but one with an ambitious programming—so that remark from Sir Butch felt like a validation. Ever since we attempted to mount the first one last 2024, we wanted to have a literary festival that celebrated books and writers, but also favored extensive discourse. And we also wanted to do it the Dumaguete way: chill lang. No mall to host us because that feels so capitalistic—so we invite you to a heritage house. No formal clothes kay init kaayo—so please come in shorts and tsinelas. And to take our guests around, we have the tricycle. [But vans are also available, of course.] I think it was that vibe that made the literary festival such a huge success.

From an organizer’s point of view, this was a lot of sweat and hard work and sleepless nights. [But no tears! Because the team behind this—Gayle Acar, Ernest Acar, Tara de Leon, Renz Torres, Kaycee Melon, and I, which we call The Circle—somehow worked at all these via our twice-monthly meetings over pizza and pasta and liempo and sushi and laughter at the Acars’—which was our constant headquarters. Our synergy was synergizing well!] The six of us represented Buglas Writers Guild, Libraria Books, Backpack Solutions, Arts and Design Collective Dumaguete, DumAlt.Press, and the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center of Silliman University, all of them the presenting organizations of the literary festival. But we also got tremendous help from the Belltower Project and Indievided. [Hello, Jan V. Barga! He was really the seventh member of The Circle].

Our gratitude to our partners, DTI Negros Oriental [especially Nimfa Virtucio and Anton Gabila], the Dumaguete City Tourism Office [especially Katherine Aguilar], Cebu Pacific Air [especially Michelle Eve De Guzman], UNWND Boutique Hotel Dumaguete [especially Marla De Asis Fresnido], CHADAA [especially Louise Remata Villanueva], and Buglas Isla Cafe [especially Carmen Teves-Lhuillier], all without whom this would have been impossible to organize. Our presenting partners also included Inspiro-Dumaguete [especially Suzanne Lu-Bascara], Florentina Homes [especially Gabby Del Prado], Pinspired Art Souvenirs [especially Jane Spiridinova], Talecraft [especially Ria Lu and Maita Lu], Asia Brewery [thank you for the Tanduay!], the Film Development Council of the Philippines, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts [the National Artist Office].

But without the writers who came, there would have been no literary festival. So thank you to the writers of Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and Siquijor for coming and participating [as panelists, moderators, and presenters] and for making the Duma LitFest your home. And thank you to all our other literary guests from all over the Philippines [Manila, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Zamboanga City, Cebu City, Davao City, etc.] for accepting our invitation to be part of this festival, especially National Artist for Literature Resil Mojares, public historian Ambeth R. Ocampo, and novelist Jose Dalisay Jr. Even food writer Ige Ramos joined us and celebrated his birthday here! Thank you as well to our lone come-backing panelist Mina V. Esguerra, whose RomanceClass will always have a table at Duma LitFest.

We also ate beautifully this year, courtesy of Adamo [thank you, Edison Monte de Ramos Manuel!], Beans and Barrels [thank you, Pam and Ed Celesios!], The Dining Room [courtesy of Leon Gallery — thank you Jaime Ponce de Leon and Nadia Teves!], and the Dumaguete City LGU [thank you, Mayor Ipe Remollo!]. Busog kayo mi!

Thank you to our benefactors—regular Dumaguete people who believed in our vision and who chipped in—from Golda Benjamin to Gideon Caballes, from Jenny Lind Dales-Elmaco to Eugene and Niña Kho, from Arlene Delloso to Luis Sinco, from Pristine Raymond to Virginia Stack, from Zara Dy to Beryl Delicana, from Sally Maghanoy to Honeylet Tuanda. Daghan pa kayo. I am touched when friends unexpectedly pitch in to help in significant ways, just seeing how their contribution can actually make things better. On the eve of the LitFest, Marikit Armogenia saw our white monobloc chairs, and she was like, “That won’t do. Use the chairs from my catering.” Thank you, Kit! Then there was also another friend, Renaldo Norman, who saw our brownout problem last Sunday, and provided an extra generator for us. There are many others in the community who have pitched in like this, unbidden—and we are so grateful. This kind of generosity feels very Dumaguete.

Lastly, thank you to Cil Flores whose art beautifully captured the essence of our theme this year. What also made this year’s edition special was the painstaking effort made by Ernest Acar [of Just Guhit ], Kiko Miranda [of KikoMonster], and Elbert Or [of Pushpin] who listened to all the literary panels, and produced graphic recordings of everyone’s thoughts at the end of every panel. Truly amazing.

It truly took a community to present this undertaking, to make true the vision of Dumaguete as a City of Stories. Salamat sa tanan. Padayon sa 3rd Dumaguete Literary Festival on April 2026!