The STAR contributor wins at 67th Palanca Awards
This photo, from the Twitter account of Dr. Joachim Emilio Antonio, has the caption: "My dear son seemed to think I got an Olympic medal at the #PalancaAwards."
MANILA, Philippines — It will be a celebration of excellence and tradition as the 67th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (Palanca Awards) will honor the winners Friday evening at The Peninsula Manila in Makati City. Among them is former The STAR contributor Dr. Joachim Emilio Antonio, who bagged second prize in the Full-length Play category for “exesanonymous.com.”
Antonio already has eight Palanca awards under his belt. This is his third Palanca-winning full-length play, following “The Last Filipino” in 2014 and “The Floret Road” in 2016.Antonio is among the 51 names, 24 of which were first-time awardees, who emerged as this year’s batch of winners.Four of said contenders each took home prizes in two separate categories.The bi-annual Novel and Nobela are open this year, bringing the total number of categories to 22. The Awards’ organizer and sponsor, Carlos Palanca Foundation, Inc., handpicked an elite roster of literary personalities to evaluate the submissions.
This year’s awarding ceremony had as speaker and guest of honor decorated writer and professor Dr. Jose “Butch” Y. Dalisay Jr.It was a homecoming of sorts for Dalisay, himself a 16-time Palanca awardee and a Hall of Famer at that. Dalisay was conferred the GawadDangal ng Lahifor his contributions to the literary scene, including books of his stories, plays, and essays, screenplays, and biographies.
Named after businessman and philanthropist Don Carlos Palanca Sr., the Palanca Awards continuously seeks to cultivate Philippine Literature by rewarding writers and serves as a treasury of these literary gems.It is considered the gold standard in writing excellence, coveted by Filipino writers, young and old alike, the world over.
