Friday, August 27, 2004
Victories
A friend’s success is my success too.
My good old college friend Dean Francis Reyes Alfar, famous Filipino playwright, poet, short story writer, and comic book writer-extraordinaire, and my best friend Jose Maria Alarilla, famous Filipino journalist, writer, poet, essayist, and newspaper editor both won “Palancas” this year. I would like to congratulate these two exceptionally talented, hardworking, passionate, and truly wonderful writer-friends of mine with their prestigious awards. (To those who don’t know the annual “Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award,” it is like the Philippine’s version of the Pulitzer Prize or the Nobel Prize in Literature. Achieving such an award is a great honor to any Filipino writer.)
Both are my friends and orgmates from UP Tinta, our then college organization composed of poets, writers, lovers of literature, and just about anyone who was enamored with the spoken and written word.
Dean Francis Reyes Alfar is a multi-awarded writer. He has previously won five Palancas (if I am not mistaken) in the One-Act Play and Short Story categories. This year, he has won one in each category making it a total of seven Palancas for him. Among his award winning works are the short story “Spark: The Sad and Strange Tale of Sister Maria Dolores, The Nun Who Exploded” and the plays “Fragments of Memories” and “Island: The Musical.” Many of his works have been published in local magazines, newspapers, and books. Another success of his this year is the inclusion of his short story entitled “L’ Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)” in the American publication “The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Seventeenth Annual Collection” which appeared alongside the works of international literary greats like Neil Gaiman, the creator of the Sandman comic books and Ursula Le Guin. This story which metamorphosed into a play gave him his 2nd Prize win in the Palanca One-Act Play Category while his genre short story “Hollow: A Girl’s Romance” won 3rd Prize in the Futurist Fiction Category. His other passion is comic books and he is considered as one of the prime movers of “grafiction” in the country, endlessly working with illustrators and artists, and publishing and creating high-class standard comic books left and right. For this unbridled passion, he and his team won the 2004 National Book Award for Best Comic Book for their comic book anthology entitled “Siglo: Freedom” a few weeks ago. This guy I think has won every literary award there is in the Philippines and believe me he rightly deserves them all. He manages his own business advertising company called Kestrel IMC and is happily married to Nikki Go, who is also a great writer and a good friend from the same org. They have an adorable daughter named Sage. (You can check out their respective blogs at http://www.kestrelstudios.com/blog/ and http://nikkialfar.blogspot.com/).
Jose Maria Alarilla, my best friend who has always been there for me and has loved me like a brother through the years, has done countless newspaper articles and has won awards for his impressive and active role in IT journalism in the Philippines. He is currently the editor of www.inq7.net/globalnation. His writing entitled “Surviving the Zeroes,” which is about a father’s view on digital technology and how it is shaping the life of his daughter, won Third Prize in the Palanca Essay Category. This is his first Palanca. He is married to my “kumare” Ellen Quijano, who I share the same birthday with and who is also a wonderful writer. They have a beautiful two-year old daughter, my “inaanak,” Samantha. (You can email him at joey_alarilla@yahoo.com.)
It is an honor and a blessing to be connected with two great writers (very humble, creative, fun, and caring people I may add). It makes me feel proud to be their fellow writer, comrade in arts, and friend and equally makes me aspire to do better at my craft. Honestly, they have always been a source of inspiration to me. I have always believed that friends are the best idols one could have. Their success has motivated me to devote more precious time with my pen and ink (or the computer), be inspired again by my literary muse, and write down whatever ideas I have on poetry, short stories, essays, and even novels that constantly churn in my mind. For who knows, one of these ideas might turn out be an award winning work.
Until that happens, I will write and write and write, and hope to have my “Palanca” and my taste of success too.
For I know, my success will be their success too.
Congratulations again, Dean and Joey.
(And Ponjun Roco too, son of former Presidential-aspirant Raul Roco, another friend and orgmate from UP Tinta, for his successful one man show entitled “Prism” at the Pasig City Museum.)
My good old college friend Dean Francis Reyes Alfar, famous Filipino playwright, poet, short story writer, and comic book writer-extraordinaire, and my best friend Jose Maria Alarilla, famous Filipino journalist, writer, poet, essayist, and newspaper editor both won “Palancas” this year. I would like to congratulate these two exceptionally talented, hardworking, passionate, and truly wonderful writer-friends of mine with their prestigious awards. (To those who don’t know the annual “Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Award,” it is like the Philippine’s version of the Pulitzer Prize or the Nobel Prize in Literature. Achieving such an award is a great honor to any Filipino writer.)
Both are my friends and orgmates from UP Tinta, our then college organization composed of poets, writers, lovers of literature, and just about anyone who was enamored with the spoken and written word.
Dean Francis Reyes Alfar is a multi-awarded writer. He has previously won five Palancas (if I am not mistaken) in the One-Act Play and Short Story categories. This year, he has won one in each category making it a total of seven Palancas for him. Among his award winning works are the short story “Spark: The Sad and Strange Tale of Sister Maria Dolores, The Nun Who Exploded” and the plays “Fragments of Memories” and “Island: The Musical.” Many of his works have been published in local magazines, newspapers, and books. Another success of his this year is the inclusion of his short story entitled “L’ Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars)” in the American publication “The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror Seventeenth Annual Collection” which appeared alongside the works of international literary greats like Neil Gaiman, the creator of the Sandman comic books and Ursula Le Guin. This story which metamorphosed into a play gave him his 2nd Prize win in the Palanca One-Act Play Category while his genre short story “Hollow: A Girl’s Romance” won 3rd Prize in the Futurist Fiction Category. His other passion is comic books and he is considered as one of the prime movers of “grafiction” in the country, endlessly working with illustrators and artists, and publishing and creating high-class standard comic books left and right. For this unbridled passion, he and his team won the 2004 National Book Award for Best Comic Book for their comic book anthology entitled “Siglo: Freedom” a few weeks ago. This guy I think has won every literary award there is in the Philippines and believe me he rightly deserves them all. He manages his own business advertising company called Kestrel IMC and is happily married to Nikki Go, who is also a great writer and a good friend from the same org. They have an adorable daughter named Sage. (You can check out their respective blogs at http://www.kestrelstudios.com/blog/ and http://nikkialfar.blogspot.com/).
Jose Maria Alarilla, my best friend who has always been there for me and has loved me like a brother through the years, has done countless newspaper articles and has won awards for his impressive and active role in IT journalism in the Philippines. He is currently the editor of www.inq7.net/globalnation. His writing entitled “Surviving the Zeroes,” which is about a father’s view on digital technology and how it is shaping the life of his daughter, won Third Prize in the Palanca Essay Category. This is his first Palanca. He is married to my “kumare” Ellen Quijano, who I share the same birthday with and who is also a wonderful writer. They have a beautiful two-year old daughter, my “inaanak,” Samantha. (You can email him at joey_alarilla@yahoo.com.)
It is an honor and a blessing to be connected with two great writers (very humble, creative, fun, and caring people I may add). It makes me feel proud to be their fellow writer, comrade in arts, and friend and equally makes me aspire to do better at my craft. Honestly, they have always been a source of inspiration to me. I have always believed that friends are the best idols one could have. Their success has motivated me to devote more precious time with my pen and ink (or the computer), be inspired again by my literary muse, and write down whatever ideas I have on poetry, short stories, essays, and even novels that constantly churn in my mind. For who knows, one of these ideas might turn out be an award winning work.
Until that happens, I will write and write and write, and hope to have my “Palanca” and my taste of success too.
For I know, my success will be their success too.
Congratulations again, Dean and Joey.
(And Ponjun Roco too, son of former Presidential-aspirant Raul Roco, another friend and orgmate from UP Tinta, for his successful one man show entitled “Prism” at the Pasig City Museum.)
