From Nocturnal Neurons:

“THE RICKY LEE READERS”

Gina Alajar, Chanda Romero, Cherie Pie Picache, Cesar Montano, Lorna Tolentino, Eugene Domingo and Piolo Pascual will be reading excerpts from Ricky Lee’s upcoming novel Para kay B (O kung paano dinevastate ng pag-ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa atin) at the grand book launch on NOVEMBER 30, Sunday, 4 PM at the UP Bahay ng Alumni, Diliman, Quezon City. No less than Ms. Marilou Diaz-Abaya will be the director-of-ceremonies of this star-studded event to be graced by luminaries in the fields of cinema, television, and literature.

To attend this event and get a copy of the book, please secure your passes/bookmarks from these contact details:
0906-5208085;
0921-7849363;
ewongco@gmail.com;
writers.studio12@gmail.com.

Hong Kong, 13 November 2008 ­– A panel of three internationally acclaimed authors and experienced literary judges named Filipino author Miguel Syjuco the winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel Ilustrado, a fictional account of a young Filipino caught within a notorious scandal spanning over the Philippine history.

(The same novel also won the grand prize for the novel in this year’s Palanca awards. More about Syjuco and his novel here.)

The Man Asian Literary Prize was established in 2006 to bring greater worldwide attention to Asian writing and authors. The inaugural prize was awarded in November 2007 to Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong, which was published in English to great acclaim in early 2008. Several works shortlisted and longlisted for the 2007 Prize have since been published.

The panel of judges for the 2008 prize praised Ilustrado:

“The shortlist for the Man Asian prize testifies to the great vitality of the novel in Asian societies undergoing hectic and unexpected transformations. In the end, we had to choose; and Ilustrado seems to us to possess formal ambition, linguistic inventiveness and sociopolitical insight in the most satisfying measure. Brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed, it covers a large and tumultuous historical period with seemingly effortless skill. It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humour.”

The prize winner was announced at a celebratory dinner at The Peninsula Hong Kong and Miguel Syjuco was awarded USD 10,000.

The judging panel for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize is: Adrienne Clarkson, former Governor General of Canada (Chair); Nicholas Jose, writer, scholar and former Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in China; and Pankaj Mishra, acclaimed Indian writer and thinker.

The shortlist of five from which the winner was chosen included Indian writer Kavery Nambisan for The Story that Must Not be Told, Indian writer Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi for The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay, Filipino writer Miguel Syjuco for Ilustrado, Chinese writer Yu Hua for Brothers and Filipino writer Alfred A. Yuson for The Music Child.

Man Group plc is the sponsor of the Man Asian Literary Prize, in cooperation with Asian Literary Prize Ltd. Man Group also supports a variety of other programmes as well as charities aimed at furthering literature and literacy, including the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival, a 10-day event that attracts authors from around the world and thousands of attendees. Separately, Man Group also sponsors the annual Man Booker Prize and the bi-annual Man Booker International Prize, in conjunction with the Booker Foundation.

Additional information on the website:
www.manasianliteraryprize.org

The APA Collection at the Library of Congress is exhibiting the books of
Asian American women poets in collaboration with the First Annual Festival
of Women’s Poetry on the Internet. (http://wompherence.proboards82.com).

A collection of the published works of select poets in the list of “100
Filipino women poets” featured on the website and curated by Luisa Igloria,
multi-awarded poet, are part of the Library’s special exhibit.

Angela Manalang Gloria’s *Poems *released in 1940 is considered the first
published poetry collection by a Filipina. The original, the revised edition
and the updated edition (*The Complete Poems,* edited by Edna Zapanta
Manlapaz) are part of the exhibit. Two seldom seen monographs, Two
Voices, *Selected Poems of Abelardo Subido and Trinidad Tarrosa Subido,* published in 1945 and
Trinidad Tarrosa Subido’s *Private Edition: sonnets and other poems *(2002)
are likewise included.

The Wompherence Exhibit in the Library is displayed in the Asian Reading
Room, LJ150 at the Jefferson Building, 101 Independence Avenue, N.E. and is
open to the public Monday through Saturday during the month of November. For
more information, contact Reme Grefalda at regr@loc.gov or (202) 707-6096.

The Filipino poets featured at the Library exhibit are: Mila Aguilar, Cora
Almerino, Linda Alburo, Lilia F. Antonio, Jessie Badillo-Snyder, Merlinda C.
Bobis, Carlene S. Bonnivier, Cynthia Buiza, Sofiya Cabalquinto, Catalina
Cariaga, Marjorie Evasco, Penelope Flores, Sarah Gambito, Jean V. Gier, Reme
Grefalda, Jessica Hagedorn, Aileen Ibardaloza, Luisa Igloria (Ma. Luisa B.
Aguilar Carino ), Marra PL Lanot, Babeth Lolarga, Susan T. Layug, Fatima
Lim-Wilson, Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo, Angela Manalang-Gloria, Maningning
Miclat, Barb Natividad, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Cristina Querrer, Lilia
Quindoza-Santiago, Barbara J. Pulmano Reyes, Patria Rivera, Nadine Sarreal,
Trinidad Tarrosa Subido, Eileen Tabios, Ester Tapia, Edith L. Tiempo, and
Rowena T. Torrevillas.

Readers can find the works of the 100 Filipina poets in
http://www.wompherence.proboards82.com/index.cgi?board=fip

Wompherence is spearheaded by Moira Richards, Shayla Mollohan, and Louisa
Howerowe of the Women’s Poetry Collective (Wompo) started by poet Annie
Finch, who directs the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Low
Residency Program. One recent and brilliant example of another Wompo
collaborative effort is the anthology published by Red Hen Press in January
this year, LETTERS TO THE WORLD.

Dr. Floro Quibuyen, author of A NATION ABORTED, will speak about how
Rizal has been misrepresented by the prevailing orthodoxy on
Philippine nationalism in a lecture titled, “What Nation was Aborted?
Recovering History from Historians,” on Tuesday, November 11, from 4
pm, at the Museo ng Maynila (what used to be the Army and Navy Club),
Roxas Blvd., Manila.

The lecture coincides with the release of the second edition of his A
NATION ABORTED: Rizal, American Hegemony, and Philippine Nationalism,
which contains two new chapters. The book (rated “one of the most
provocative books” for the ’90s by the Japanese publishing house
Iwanami), urges students and teachers and thoughtful readers to
rethink long-held ideas about our history, and to reread Rizal and his
ideas against what has been taken as “official nationalism.”

The program will be opened by Ms. Gemma Cruz-Araneta, vice chair of
the co-organizer Manila Historical and Heritage Commission. To lead
the discussion after the lecture, Ms. Sylvia Mayuga and Mr. Alex
Dacanay will give commentaries about the book.

Attesting to the author’s broad interests, his short film, “Hibik sa
Dapit-hapon,” an imagining of Josephine witnessing Rizal’s execution,
will also be shown. “Hibik” was adjudged one of the top ten films of
the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines Film Festival in 1981.

Through all these years of his varied career, independent scholar Dr.
Quibuyen has been a prolific professor, innovative educator, and
pioneering filmmaker. He has taught over 30 different courses in the
social sciences in several universities here and abroad. He has made
film projects both in the Philippines and Hawaii. And although
officially retired from the UP Asian Center, Dr. Quibuyen continues to
teach as Professorial Lecturer at the University of Santo Tomas.

ON A WING and a prayer. That was the spirit that bound five journalists when they plunged into the business of selling new and read books, says Inday Espina Varona, editor of the Philippine Graphic.

“We’ve been talking about it. Usapang panaginip lang (dream talk),” she says of the bookshop they call “Bound” that opened March 8 at 105-A Scout Castor St., in Quezon City.
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