ATENEAN STUDENTS and faculty alike were honored at the 66th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature held on September 2 at the Rigodon Ballroom, Peninsula Manila.
The Palanca Awards are given in recognition of exemplary works in English and Filipino literature. Participants were awarded in the full-length play, one-act play, poetry, poetry written for children, short story, short story written for children, essay, and kabataan essay categories.
English Instructor Louie Sanchez received the 2nd prize in the Tula category for his work “Tempus Per Annum at Iba Pang Tula,” while Patricia Ngo (4 BS ME) won 3rd place in the Poetry Written for Children category for “Miniature Masterpieces.”
In addition, Fine Arts Lecturer Paolo Tiausas was awarded 3rd place in the Maikling Kuwento category for “Cutter.”
Celebrating artistry
According to Ngo, she was inspired by the creative potential of children in writing her anthology of poems. She explained that her work is about celebrating the artistry that children have, and the importance that they remain imaginative.
Ngo said that the imagination that children are born with has to be cultivated and encouraged. “I believe that children were born artists…and it’s about maintaining that when they grow up,” she said.
This is not Ngo’s first time in the Palanca Awards– in 2015, she was awarded 2nd place in the Poetry Written for Children category for her work “Ordinary Adventures.”
“It makes me really happy to have another opportunity to write more poetry for children because it’s something I really want to do,” she said. “[The Palanca Awards] pushes me to write more especially na I have a set deadline and it pushes me to keep writing because there is a concrete goal to work toward,” she added.
Cultivating creativity
For Sanchez, his “Ignatian temperament” inspired him to write poems with religious themes. “The collection that won this year is about something in ordinary time, the title of my collection is Tempus per Annum, which is ‘Ordinary Time.’ It’s part of the liturgical calendar and my project is really to cover the liturgical calendar.”
He said that he wanted to explore themes of anxiety in relation to the liturgical calendar.
“The theme [in the anthology] is primarily one of “terror.” I call it “bagabag,” bagabag sa karaniwang panahon, because I write in Filipino,” he added.
“This collection I’m working is the one that’s more down to earth because it’s more inclined to talk about the ‘dailyness’ of struggle and strife of terror, as you know it,” he added.
Sanchez has been submitting works to the Palanca Awards for 16 years, and will continue to submit in the future. “I’m not yet done, really, I have a lot of poems to cover and write about,” he said.
“Writing is really not yet a profession that you can fully devote your life into so many of us here do other jobs like teaching…so we actually to make sure we work to make sure that our writing is cultivated,” he said.
Family matters
Tiausas said that his Filipino short story “Cutter” focused on the issues of the family. He said that he drew inspiration from his own family stories. “The best part was getting my family to share in the celebration,” he said.
Tiausas has had extensive experience in the writing profession. While pursuing his Creative Writing major in his undergraduate years, he participated in workshops such as the 16th Ateneo Heights Writers Workshop in 2010, the 11th Ateneo National Writers Workshop in 2012, and the 14th IYAS National Writers Workshop in 2014.
He said that although he has no explicit plans yet, he wishes to continue to pursue his writing career. “I don’t really have plans for other stories yet.”
