SEVERAL ATENEANS were honored for their literary work in the 65th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature held on September 1 at the Rigodon Ballroom, Peninsula Manila.

According to the Palanca Awards’ official press release, the awards are “the most prestigious and longest-running literary contest” in the Philippines.

This year, the Palanca Awards accepted 895 entries across 22 categories in English and Filipino, namely, novel, full-length play, one-act play, poetry, poetry written for children, short story, short story written for children, essay, and kabataan essay.

The entries were judged by 63 individuals distinguished in the field of literature. They included English Department Chair Danilo Reyes and Filipino Department Assistant Professor Marco Lopez.

The winners

Among the Atenean winners, five prevailed in the English categories while four triumphed in the Filipino division. Among them are English Department Instructors Exie Abola and Miguel Lizada.

Abola garnered first prize for his short story in English entitled “Phallic Symbols,” while Lizada earned third prize for his essay “The Bangkok Masseur,” also written in English.

In addition, former Filipino Department Chair Corazon Lalu-Santos, PhD won third prize in the maikling kuwentong pambata (short story for children) category for her piece “Ang Hiling sa Punso.”

Management engineering junior Patricia Ngo was awarded second prize in the English poetry written for children category for her poetry collection entitled “Ordinary Adventures.”

Moreover, Ateneo alumni Charisse-Fuschia Paderna (AB PH ’07) and Arkaye Kierulf (BS CH ’09) won first prize and second prize, respectively, in the English poetry category.

Paderna won for her collection “An Abundance of Selves,” while Kierulf was recognized for his work titled “There Are No Monsters.”

In the tula (poetry) category, Abner Dormiendo (AB PH ’14) and Filipino literature senior Christian Benitez won second and third prize respectively.

Dormiendo’s winning piece was his collection “Sa Antipolo pa rin ang Antipolo,” while Benitez won for his collection “Sapagkat Umibig: Mga Tula.”

Meanwhile, Ateneo alumna Eloisa Palileo (AB COM ’07) bagged first prize in the dulang pampanitikan (screenplay) category for her work “Pink o Blue.”

On literature and the literary artist

Former University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing Director Gemino Abad, PhD served as the awarding ceremony’s guest of honour.

In his speech, Abad said that the standards for writing and judging literature vary.

He mentioned that “no hegemony, no dictatorship can ever prevail among writers. There isn’t for instance, one way of writing a poem.”

“Even the criterion of excellence for any literary work has changed over time,” Abad added.

He also presented literature as a “translation of reality” and “verbal construct,” saying that it “has to do with what is lived or what is imagined.”

Moreover, Abad emphasized that literature is central to society hence “care of words is care of life.”

“Without language, the finest invention of the universe, there is no memory, no history, no culture, no civilization,” he said.

Celebrating their victory

Lizada and Ngo, both first-time Palanca Awardees, keyed in on their respective victories.

On his Facebook profile, Lizada posted a picture of the winners in the essay category with the caption “I still cannot believe it. AM+DG.”

On the other hand, Ngo said she feels “thankful” for the distinction.

“I’ve been dreaming about winning a Palanca since I was in grade school,” she said.

Ngo also expressed gratitude for being surrounded by distinguished literary scholars, saying that “it’s also a great [honor] to be in the company of so many great writers.”

Editor’s Note: The original article that appeared on this site did not have the complete list of Atenean Palanca awardees. This has since been corrected to include Christian Benitez, Abner Dormiendo, and Eloisa Palileo.