Crossover misprint & glaring typos
The young and exceptional short story writer Douglas Candano winged in from Burma recently, and showed us a copy of a title he had picked up at a Kinokuniya bookstore in Bangkok. It was The S.E.A. Write Anthology of ASEAN Short Stories & Poems: The 30th Anniversary, edited by Nitaya Masavisut and Ellen Boccuzzi, and published by Silkroad Agency, with the 2008 copyright held by The Organizing Committee of S.E.A. Write/ASEAN.
We were quite excited to leaf through the book, as we recalled receiving communication from some Thai pooh-bahs over a year ago, informing us that we were among those selected from the growing roster of Filipino SEAWrite (SouthEast Asian Writers) Award winners. And may we now contribute a work of fiction or poetry for a commemorative anthology?
If we remember correctly, it was through our buddy Cesar Ruiz Aquino of Dumaguete that the editors got hold of our coordinates. In any case, subsequent communication led to our submission of a short story.
The S.E.A. Write Award is among the most prestigious of literary laurels in our region, and also rather profitable, with the ASEAN country winners gaining 100,000 baht each in addition to a full week’s princely stay at the famed The Oriental hotel in Bangkok. The winners also receive their prizes from a Thai royal at a gala dinner. It is an experience altogether memorable.
Well, it seems the anthology editors settled for an easy resolution of selection dilemmas. Since the award had its 30th edition last year, then there must have already been 30 Filipino winners, the same number for the rest of the original ASEAN states until others were eventually included.
With this writer as an exception, since we received it in the 1990s, the editors appeared to have zeroed in on the latest winners: Aquino, Antonio Enriquez (originally from Zamboanga, now based in Cagayan de Oro City), and Filipino-language poets Vim Carmelo Nadera and Mike Coroza. Five from each country then, with a larger number for Thailand, since it hosts the annual awards and has now produced the commemorative publication.
Opening the book, we got quite a surprise when our eyes fell on the page with our byline — for a story titled “The Iguana” — which we instantly knew we hadn’t written. Unless, of course, the editors took it upon themselves to retitle our submission.
But one look at the opening lines told us that it was Tony Enriquez’s. Thus did we take only marginal offense at the misappropriation, since we knew it would be a toss-up as to which one of us would feel more insulted.
Now, here we enter the world of good humor, maybe even one of delirium. Nearly four decades ago, we had been a foundling taken in (to their home) by the great good couple Tony and Joy Enriquez. To this day we savor our memories of staying at their pond-side cottage a brief walk from the beach at Banilad, south of Dumaguete, for all of a semester when we all taught at Silliman University.
If it had been somebody else’s story, say ... uhh, oh, never mind, no guts no glory — we might have felt deeply aggrieved. But to have one’s literary destiny (at least in one regional anthology) entangled with that of the Zorba-esque “Tonio Bonini” is to hark back to all those days in heaven: the sea and lobsters, fish in the pond, the idyll of southern sun, the balm of adopted family and shared song, rum and Coke.
I’ve texted Tony about the gaffe, and expectedly received a “Chucha ole!” Chabacano yelp of delight over our mistaken identities as compoblancos, heh heh. Now we are one in salivating over the prospects of imminent litigation. Do we take up the matter with Adrian “Che” Cristobal, our handsome friend who heads the Intellectual Property Rights office under that of the President, our President?
Hail to the Chief! Now jail to the thief! Which one? Did I plagiarize his story, as Tony might contend? Or did he steal my identity and byline? Or should we take up the issue before a world court, citing the Bern Convention or some such, and demand redress from the publisher, the editors, the S.E.A. Write Organizing Committee? Maybe in the form of a shared déja voodoo of a holiday: a week’s royal stay at The Oriental, daily spa privileges across the Chao Phrya, a river cruise to Ayutthaya with bar girls from Patpong, first-class tickets on Thai Airways?
It boggles the mind, this inadvertent mix-up of fiction provenance. When Tony Enriquez and I get together soon for the national literature conference and festival billed as “Taboan,” to be held in UP Diliman on Feb. 11 to 13, we can both be sure of extra clinking toasts — to the prospects of reliving the high life in Bangkok.
Now, as if that discovery weren’t enough to dent our literary ego, last week we encountered another hairy monster of a typo that reared its horrible head in the pages of yet another international anthology.
The occasion was the Philippine launch of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond, edited by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar, published last year by W.W. Norton & Company. It’s been called the “new Norton Poetry Anthology,” which makes it a popular buy, not just as a doorstop (all of 714 pages).
Co-editor Shankar (no relation to the much older music guru) was in town, invited over by Dinah Roma-Santuri of De La Salle University when they got together recently at a New Delhi writers’ bash. So the launch was held at the DLSU’s Ariston Estrada Hall, with some of the Manila poets represented in the volume reading their poems, as well as others by fellow Pinoys here and abroad.
Marj Evasco read hers after the absent (in Tacloban) Merlie Alunan’s, Ed Maranan his after New Yorker Luis Cabalquinto’s. Marne Kilates read Cesar Ruiz Aquino’s vintage “She Comes With Horns and Tail,” then his own now-classic “Python at the Mall.” I was privileged to read National Artist “Mom” Edith L. Tiempo’s “Rowena, Playing in the Sun,” celebrated since the mid-’50s, before my own “Dream of Knives.” To cap off the readings, Jimmy Abad rendered New Yorker Eric Gamalinda’s “Valley of Marvels” before pulling off his usual feat of reciting from memory, this time his own extended “Jeepney.”
At my turn, I nearly choked before the podium, as I noted a typo in one of Mom Edith’s lines, where “life” should have been “lift” — or so my memory of that poem contends. I wasn’t fast enough to compensate for the visual stumble, and wound up saying something that sounded more like “live” — as a verb.
As if that wasn’t enough, my own poem turned out to be suffering a missing phrase, stunting the first stanza into one less line and turning it into a quatrain, when I recalled that poem to be composed of three equal cinquains. But Kaibigang Gémino had gobbled up more than his fair share of memory when it was passed around, so that I wound up muttering a truncated version of my own poem. Better than what was on the page, yet still short of the orig.
Ah, hazards of the trade. I suppose that a tome of over 400 poets with a poem each presents more challenges to editorial eyes, even if these were tripled. Aargh! Two hits in a week. I expect a third soon enough. Maybe the lotto numbers will play a trick this weekend, and my chosen six winds up in print as nine, and vice versa.
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Our beloved Benedictine monks perform at a sacred music concert in the lovely Abbey Church of Our Lady of Montserrat at San Beda College on Mendiola, Manila, this Friday, January 30, starting at six o’clock in the evening.
Billed as “Gaudete in Domino!” (Rejoice in the Lord!), this rare musical experience will feature traditional Gregorian chants, with Fr. Bernardo Perez, OSB, Rector-Emeritus, as choirmaster, and the distinguished composer Fr. Benildus Ma. Maramba, OSB, playing the organ.
The UST Liturgikon Ensemble under conductor Eugene de los Santos and the UST Brass Ensemble under conductor Michael Jacinto will render excerpts from Georg Friederich Händel’s Messiah and compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Giovanni Gabrieli, Tomas Luis de Victoria, and other composers.
Producing the benefit concert in honor of Sto. Niño de Praga and Our Lady of Montserrat is the SBC High School Class of 1959 (the 2009 Golden Jubilarians) chaired by Paul A. Aquino, with the support of the Silver Jubilarians (Class of 1984) and the San Beda College Alumni Association, Inc. Proceeds go to the Pamanang Bedista, the new San Beda College Heritage Center that will house the rich history and tradition of excellence of the Benedictine educational institution that’s over a century old.
For ticket reservation, contact the SBC Alumni Office (tel. nos. 735-5995 and 733-6131 or cell no. 0917-8072222).
