This writerly thread

To add just a bit more to what I was saying last week about why we don’t write more novels, but should:

Even before we dream of selling our books in New York or London, we Filipino authors in English have to sell more books in this country, and I’m coming around to thinking that the fault, dear Brutus, is no longer in our readership but in ourselves. True, books of almost any kind are expensive here. Also true, we may have focused on just producing what we think of as great art because there’s little money to be made, which isn’t so bad. But it’s also a fact that many Filipinos are buying books — and let’s face it, these book buyers are primarily middle-class — except that they’re not buying us. In other words, the market is there but we’ve given up on fighting for our share of it.

By this I mean that we’re not writing about the things that might prove interesting to our potential readers; we wouldn’t mind being popular, but we shun the popular. The crimes that pepper our tabloids hardly ever make it to our fiction. Clearly, we need to write more popular or genre fiction — novels that employ not only the fantastic, but also more crime, more sex, and more humor. They may not necessarily be great novels, but good ones — novels that can attract and develop a new class of readers, be serialized, be turned into movies, be talked about over Monday-morning coffee. We also need more professional translators who can turn the best of our novels in Filipino into internationally marketable manuscripts.

I should admit, as soon as I say this, that I’ve done very little myself to fill my own prescription. Younger writers like Felisa Batacan and Dean Alfar and his group of “speculative fiction” writers are doing much more by raising the profile of a kind of fiction that seems to resonate with younger readers and can acquire a substantial following.

I gave myself curious little goals when I was working on Soledad’s Sister. I knew what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to do another take on the Noli, although I still felt sucked into it in terms of creating, say, representative towns and townsfolk. I didn’t want to do — at least for now — a novel populated by writers, artists, muses, anyone quoting anyone else or giving lectures on epistemology or baroque music. I didn’t want to do a novel that spans centuries and involves dons and doñas and anyone with a three-part Spanish name. In other words, I didn’t want to write an epic. I wanted to do a small, mostly quiet, darkly comic novel involving ordinary people in absurd situations and covering no more than a few days of real time.

I think that’s sort of what I did with Soledad’s Sister, which needs more work even at this point, and which I’ll be revising soon for publication early next year. After that, it could be back to the short story for me — or maybe I never left it, because, in terms of narrative structure, Soledad’s Sister is really a long story rather than short novel. There’s a lot more for me to learn, and a lot more for us to do, about writing the novel.

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Still on this writerly thread, let me remind interested readers that we at Likhaan: The UP Institute of Creative Writing (UPICW) are now accepting applications for the 47th UPICW National Writers Workshop to be held in Camp John Hay, Baguio City, from April 5 to 12, 2008.

I’m going to be directing this workshop — something I haven’t done since the first “Kumustahan” workshop in 2003 — so I’m looking forward to working with a fresh group of writers in what we might call their early “mid-career,” writers who’ve already published or are just on the verge of publishing their first books.

More strictly speaking, “mid-career” should really mean someone with about five books to his or her credit, but admittedly few of our writers produce more than 10 books, so we’ll take a relaxed view of this idea for now, and look instead for writers in both English and Filipino who’ve been consistently producing good work over the past few years and can be depended on to do more soon.

Following the “Kumustahan” concept, we will be reserving eight slots for fellows to be identified and invited by the UPICW; but we will also leave four more slots open to application and competition. (And let’s get this clear from the start: there should be no dishonor to getting in competitively, as that competition will be pretty stiff.) The ICW reserves the right to reapportion the number of reserved and open slots, depending on the responses and the quality of applications received.

There’s a bunch of qualifications and requirements to meet, if you’re thinking of applying, so let me just refer you to the Likhaan website at www.panitikan.com.ph for these details. Please don’t ask me or any of the UPICW associates to invite you; that will almost certainly guarantee the opposite effect. Also, this is not a workshop for first-timers, so please make sure you meet the minimum requirements before applying.

During the UP workshop, fellows will be expected to make a presentation of a chapter or draft of a work-in-progress, and an essay on an aspect of their writing or of the genre in which they work. They must be present for the full duration of the workshop period. The deadline for submission is Jan. 15, 2008. For inquiries, call 922-1830 and ask for Eva Cadiz.

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At least two major writers’ events are coming up this Saturday, Dec. 8. As has been its tradition for many years now, the UPICW will be holding Writers Night at the Hermogenes Ilagan Theater of the Faculty Center (also known as Bulwagang Rizal) in Diliman. But there’s more than the usual reunion of workshop fellows and virtual concert to look forward to this year.

At 5 p.m., we will be formally presenting the Madrigal-Gonzalez Award to this year’s winner. The Madrigal-Gonzalez goes to the best first book by a Filipino author of the past two years, alternating between English and Filipino books (it’s English’s turn this year). The 2007 shortlist comprises Salamanca by Dean Francis Alfar; Science Solitaire: Essays on Science, Nature and Becoming Human by Maria Isabel Garcia (ADMU Press), Barefoot in Fire by Barbara-Ann Gamboa Lewis (Tahanan Books); Love, Desire, Children, Etc. by Rica Bolipata-Santos (Milflores); From Inside the Berlin Wall by Helen Yap (UP Press); and Kapwa: The Self in the Other by Katrin de Guia (Anvil).

This will be followed shortly after by the launch — finally, after more than a year’s wait — of Likhaan: The Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature. As issue editor, I’d like to invite this inaugural issue’s authors — namely, Alexis Abola, Gemino Abad, Reuel Molina Aguila, Alwin Aguirre, Mayette Bayuga, Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio, Catherine S. Bucu, Douglas Candano, Mikael de Lara Co, Raymond de Borja, Francisco Arias Monteseña, Charlson Ong, Joel Toledo, Rene Villanueva, and Socorro Villanueva — to join us for this signal event to receive their copies.

There’ll be a lot to celebrate in UP on Saturday evening, so if you have anything to do with writing, we hope you can be with us. (Unfortunately, the event coincides with another get-together in Manila that same time sponsored by the Philippine PEN, which is also holding its Golden Anniversary Conference Dec. 8 to 9 at the National Museum. I’ll be speaking there the next morning in a session on “Literature Without Frontiers.” I better not party too hard!)

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From longtime reader Dr. Henry Lim Yu comes this notice that the Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) is celebrating its 50th year with a grand event billed as “50 Years of Excellence in Medical Education” from Dec. 2 to 8 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.

As part of the weeklong celebration, a medical-surgical mission will be held from Dec. 3 to 7. A Medical World Congress will likewise be held from Dec. 5 to 7 at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, with the theme “Challenges & Innovations in Medicine.” Hundreds of CIM alumni from all over the world will be coming home to join this big event, and if you’re a CIM graduate, Henry’s inviting you to come on over.

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E-mail me at penmanila@yahoo.com and visit my blog at http://www.penmanila.net.