By Alma Anonas-Carpio
Four women writers flew to the Philippines to receive their trophies and prizes in the first Asia-Pacific Nick Joaquin Literary Awards held at the Winford Manila Resort and Casino on May 15. Two of them were Filipinas based outside the country.
The winners received their trophies and prizes in the presence of National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose, and members of the local writing community, as well as representatives of the Asia-Pacific NJLA sponsors.
This maiden international literary contest was the culmination of a joint endeavor by the Philippines Graphic and BusinessMirror: The publication of fiction and poetry by authors located in the member-states of the Asean, and Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand in Tony & Nick, the BusinessMirror’s literary and arts and culture section which is a collaboration between both publications.
Graphic and BusinessMirror publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon said in his welcome remarks at the awards night that “Tony & Nick is a testament to that friendship between my father, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua and National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin, a friendship that opened doors for local authors.”
“My father and Nick had put their considerable resources—talents, skills, the strength of their names—behind the effort to provide literary writers in the Philippines with an outlet for their poetry and short fiction in the Philippines Graphic. They were partners who made the Philippines Graphic Literary Awards possible from 1990. We now know these literary awards as the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards, which we renamed to honor Nick,” he said.
“We broadened the scope of the NJLA contest by adding this Asia-Pacific leg to it, so we could also welcome and share the work of writers from across the Asean member-states, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand in a contest where we honor the best works, tonight, in this beautiful ballroom.”
Poet of the Year: Jade-Ceres Violet Dolor Munoz, for her poem “For Abby and those who struggle daily.” She is a Filipina based in New Zealand, and is the daughter of Ramon Faustino “Beting” Laygo Dolor II, who won second prize in the regular 2015 NJLA for his short story “Diary of an Alien Abductee.”
The winning poem opens with these lines: “Woman./ You are an oyster/ ripening/ a grain of pain/ in the pit of your belly/ until it becomes/ a globe of tears/ too round,/ too heavy/ for keeping.”
First Prize winner, Fiction: Prachi Agarwal-Topiwala for the short story “Mountains of Fear, Valleys of Hope”. She is a native of Mumbai, India who now lives in Singapore with her husband and two school-age daughters. She is completing a Masters of Arts in Creative Writing at the Lasalle College in Singapore.
Here is an excerpt from the story: “Tenzin waited for a while, but he knew Linpa would go to the homes of the grieving women first. There would be rituals for the departed souls to get salvation. Without the bodies to pray over the Tapa couldn’t do much, but the chanting would go on for a couple of hours.”
Second Prize winner, Fiction: Anneliz A. Erese for the short story “Departures.” Erese recently completed her master’s degree in Writing and Literature and her work has been published in the Verandah Journal. She also received a Special Mention from Fabula Press in the Aestas Short Story Competition 2017. She is the founding editor of ALPAS Journal, a digital publication for Filipino creatives. She resides in Australia where she interns at the Melbourne Writers Festival and Melbourne University Publishing imprint, Meanjin Quarterly.
This excerpt is from “Departures”: “‘Hi, my name is Trinidad,’ I started. ‘I am seventy years old. I live at 3 Burrawong Court, Ferntree Gully. I have a daughter. Her name is Lisa. I have a granddaughter. Her name is Clementine. I love the two of them.’ My voice broke. I knew what the words meant. I learned it while I was still in San Isidro, back in our small hollow-blocked house where I lived alone after my husband passed away. When Lisa called me to say she was taking me to another country, I bought a dictionary a day later.”
Third Prize winner, Fiction: Vicky Chong for the short story “The Uber Driver.” Chong is doing her MA in Creative Writing at the Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. Her short stories were published in two anthologies by Singapore’s National Library Board.
The winning works were selected by the panel of judges who read them double-blind—the manuscripts were printed out and sent to them without bylines and in uniform typefaces and layout formats.
Here is an excerpt from “The Uber Driver”: “She hates the Sengkang-Hougang loop, as she calls it. The riders there never seem to travel off that radar range. Peck is ecstatic when she finally gets a ride into Boat Quay near midnight. She gives a little prayer—even though she left the church the day she divorced her husband. Please let someone be going to the west. Her next ride is located at a pub nearby.”
The panel of judges was chaired by poet, novelist, Gawad Dangal ng Lahi awardee and Philippine Star columnist Alfred “Krip” Yuson. Also on the panel were prolific creative non-fiction author, novelist, University of Santo Tomas professor emeritus and director of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS) Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo and poet, National Arts Council Singapore’s 2005 Young Artist of the Year and Iowa International Writing Program fellow Alvin Pang.
“Economists say this is the Age of Asians,” Cabangon also said. “May it be so in more than just the business sense of the term, because the Asia-Pacific has so much to offer the world culturally, as well as economically.”
Munoz received her trophy and prize of $1,000 from Graphic and BusinessMirror publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon in a dress she’d painted herself with creatures from Philippine myth and lore from illustrations given to her by local comic book artists.
The prizes for Fiction are as follows: $1,000 for the first prize winner, $600 for the second prize winner, and $400 for the third prize winner.
The maiden Asia-Pacific NJLA was made possible through the generosity of our sponsors: Winford Manila Resort & Casino, Embassy Premium blended whisky, Heineken, Absolute pure distilleds drinking water, Eton Properties Philippines Inc., Philippine National Bank, Summit natural drinking water, Philippine Airlines, Lingkod Pag-Ibig, SM, Landbank, Richmone Hotels & Resorts, LT Group Inc., Lujetta’s Place Garden Suites, Kitsho Japanese Restaurant and Sake Bar, Sante Barley, Sharp, Erehwon, BusinessMirror, Pilipino Mirror, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Cook magazine, CNN Philippines and DWIZ 882 AM.