Literary awards and friendships

Congratulations to the winners of the 2016 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards given out by Philippines Graphic magazine last Tuesday at a ballroom of Novotel Araneta Center.

Named after National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin, the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief when he passed away in 2004, the awards are given annually to winners of a short fiction contest involving all the stories published in Graphic within a year.

The Fiction winners were Sarge Lacuesta, first prize for his story “Coral Cove”; Kate Osias, second prize for “Silang”; and Celestine Marie Gaspar Trinidad, third prize for “Giving Lives.” The prizes included hefty cash amounts — P50,000, P30,000 and P20,000 — as well as framed certificates, medals, and an Acer Aspire Switch 10-E hybrid laptop that converts to a Windows tablet for the first-prize winner.

Since three years ago, the awards have also included the honorific “Poet of the Year” for a Filipino poet whose literary output, whether appearing in the Graphic or other publications, including books of her or his own, is deemed as most outstanding by the Graphic editors and the publisher.

Previous winners of the Poet of the Year award have been Marne Kilates, Cesar Ruiz Aquino and Victor Jose Peñaranda. This year, the awardee is Mookie Katigbak Lacuesta, who brought home a medal, a framed certificate, and a CloudPhone CloudPad tablet. Home, that is, which she shares with Sarge and their son Lucky. 

In his public announcement a few days before the awarding rites, Graphic EIC Joel Pablo Salud hailed it thus: “A literary power couple makes history.”

For her part, to preempt any naughty speculations of, uhh, game-fixing, Graphic literary editor Alma Anonas-Carpio asserted: “The bottom line in our final selection of winners is that we select them by merit of their work. That is the only bar we set for those who would win, and we set it very high.”

It’s been quite a year for the Lacuestas. Several weeks ago, Sarge’s Davao-based mom Lolly Lacuesta won for the nth time in the Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Contest. On September 2, Mookie earned, for the second time, the first prize in the Poetry in English category of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. On a rock-‘n-roll, this writing family. And now they’re brimming with writing gizmos, too.

In any case, as far as the fiction entries went, my fellow judges Dr. Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo and Susan Lara and I met only once to deliberate on our selection. This was over a buffet lunch at Novotel a little over a week before the awarding. We had received the stories a month earlier, not as tearsheets from the magazine but printed out, with no bylines or identifying marks. The authors were revealed only after the final deliberations.

In previous years, a screening committee of Graphic editors usually trimmed down the stories to a longlist of about 20. But this year we had to go through each one of the 40 published stories. Well, not really entirely, as some stories one quickly gave up on, owing to some perceived weakness.

Happily, this year’s crop I found stronger than those of previous years. But still notable, as I remarked to my better-equipped peers in the judging process, was the prevalence of stories that read more like memoirs or creative non-fiction pieces, that is, personal essays.

Then too, many appeared to involve too lengthy a time frame for a short story, or missed out on standard ingredients such as proper balance between exposition and dialogue, fleshing up of characters, rising tension, dramatic conflict, climax and resolution, let alone that invaluable impact of a change in character on the part of a central protagonist.

Much as I’ll readily acknowledge that short fiction can also wing it on the sheer power of language and/or a remarkably novel concept, I said I missed seeing more of the compact short story that utilized those good old aspects of storytelling. 

My fellow judges nodded in apparent acquiescence to such old-fogey nostalgia from this fuddy-duddy. They both smiled kindly before turning their attention to their salad and sashimi.  

Publisher Anton Cabangon shows an issue of BusinessMirror with its new literary section billed as “Nick.” Photo by Gil Roy Domingo

Each of us came up with at least five stories in our respective shortlists. All three lists were topped by “Coral Cove.” “Silang” was also a unanimous choice, placing second in two lists and fourth in the third list. “Giving Lives” figured in two judges’ lists, the same with “The Sundays in Dapitan” and “Tooth, scale, and claw.”

“Coral Cove” obviously deserved first prize, as did “Silang” the second. Further discussion ensued, but before it could turn violent (you may take this seriously if you wish), we finally agreed to give the third prize to “Giving Lives.”

The rest of our rich lunch put us all on a generous mood, so that we declared “The Sundays in Dapitan,” “Tooth, scale, and claw,” and additionally, “One More Truck Driver’s Story,” as deserving of honorable mentions. These three stories turned out to be by Timothy James Dimacali, Ethan Chua, and Merlie Alunan, respectively. 

Very briefly now: “Coral Cove” is largely spec-fic, a first-person narrative about a group of male friends who create a win-or-lose app called “Randomaiser” that becomes too successful for its spiralling monstrous consequences to be stopped, while also scene-shifting to an off-and-on boy-girl romance with its parallel hopes for balance and continuance. Sorry for too sketchy a precis.

“Silang” is a stylistic take on the Ilocana heroine Gabriela Silang, who steps up to her execution after rebuffing a “ghost” that offers her the option of freedom. “Giving Lives” is about three generations of women who find and keep a cat that saves them serially by giving up its own lives.      

At the awards night, publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon announced plans to bring the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards across Asia by next year, in celebration of Philippines Graphic’s 90th year. It’ll also be Nick’s centenary.

Onstage, Anton also displayed the latest issue of BusinessMirror with its new monthly feature on Philippine literature — a four-page section simply billed as “Nick” — featuring a reprint of “Coral Cove,” four poems by Mookie Katigbank Lacuesta, and a feature-interview of National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose by Joel Pablo Salud, titled “Frankie Speaking.”

Anton recalled a recent coffee chat he had with former DTI Sec. Che Cristobal, the only son of Adrian Cristobal who had also served as EIC of Graphic. Che had recounted how his dad once put out a literary journal billed as José — in honor of Rizal and fellow poets Garcia Villa and Huseng Batute. That idea was actually born out of literary camaraderie among Cirilo F. Bautista (now also a National Artist) and his fellow poets Ricardo M. de Ungria and yours truly. We had proposed it in the early 1980s to Adrian, who check-marked it with an “Eclat!”

Che’s recollection was what led Anton to call the BusinessMirror literary section “Nick.” But this will soon be re-branded as “Tony & Nick” in honor of the literary endeavors and life-long friendship between Amb. Antonio L. Cabangon Chua, Graphic’s founder and Anton’s father, and Nick Joaquin. 

Many other writers toasted to literary ties that night, thanks to the generous sponsorship by Pru Life UK, San Miguel Corporation, SM, Cebu-Pacific, Landbank, Unilab, Acer, Manny O Wines and Novotel. Joining us at the judges’ table were fellow poet-writers Pete Lacaba, Marra PL. Lanot, Ed Maranan, Celina Cristobal, Karina Bolasco and Noelle Q. de Jesus who was visiting from Singapore.

Around other tables were San Francisco-based Oscar Peñaranda, Ricky Soler, Mac McCarthy, Charlson Ong, Marne Kilates, Juaniyo Arcellana, Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Sage Alfar, the UST contingent of John Jack Wigley, Ailil Alvarez and Ralph Semino Galan, and Sabrina Anonas, Alessandra Brigitte Anonas, Che Sarigumba Salud and baby Likha.

Also present were Jason Domantay and the Makatas Dakila Cutab and Karl Isaac Santos, Elsa Nainalsa and the “Sanctum Babies” who performed spoken word, and a lady named Red Lily who sang lovely songs. Ricky Alegre, a top honcho in the late Ambassador Tony’s publishing group and recently appointed Tourism Undersecretary, also dropped in.

A day after that merry gig, the cycles of literary bonding were highlighted anew by Sarge Lacuesta’s disclosure on social media:

“It was the Graphic that first published me as a fictionist — a Tagalog short story titled ‘Sa Tokyo,’ about Pinoy musicians trying to make it in Tokyo. When I wrote it I'd never been to Tokyo, and I never published in Tagalog again. But I never gave up the ritual of sending stories to the Graphic and hunting down every issue every week, hoping my story would be in that issue. I did this all through med school and through my days as a working stiff, when in the early mornings I would borrow my dad’s beat-up car and drive by the curbside newsstands, still in tattered t-shirt and pajamas, shouting ‘May Graphic ba?’ and the guy would answer, ‘Wala!’

“I met Luis Katigbak at the Graphic a long time ago, at an awards ceremony held in a small office. We immediately hit it off. I also met Gregorio Brillantes at the Graphic, and a bunch of other cool cats — among them Joel Pablo Salud and Alma Anonas-Carpio. In short, I owe the Graphic a lot — for friends and role models, and for having the spirit to get some writing done every day. In return, they gave me a medal and a computer and a big check. That's OK too.”

Long live Graphic, Tony and Nick!