Love and tons of sunshine vibes

National Artist for Literature and National Writers Workshop director emeritus Edith Lopez Tiempo, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and Silliman University are pleased to announce that the following young writers have been accepted as fellows for the 48th National Writers Workshop to be conducted from May 4 to 15 in Dumaguete City.

For Poetry: Marianne Amor Romina T. Abuan of University of Santo Tomas, and Jonathan S. Gonzales, Arkaye V. Keirulf, Patricia Angela F. Magno and Niño S. Manaog, all from Ateneo de Manila University. 

For Fiction: Keith Bryan T. Cortez of University of Santo Tomas, Ana Margarita Stuart del Rosario, Russell Stanley Geronimo and Aleck E. Maramag of De La Salle University, Monique S. Francisco of University of the Philippines-Diliman, Gabrielle L. Nakpil of Ateneo de Manila University, and Gabriel Millado and Joy C. Rodriguez of University of the Philippines–Mindanao.

For Creative Non-Fiction: Philip Y. Kimpo, Jr. of University of the Philippines-Diliman and Marck Ronald Rimorin of University of the Philippines-Baguio.

This summer’s panel of critics is composed of Dumaguete-based writers Ernesto Superal Yee, Myrna Peña Reyes and Cesar Ruiz Aquino, as well as guest panelists Gémino H. Abad, Juaniyo Arcellana, J. Neil Garcia, Susan Lara, Rosario Lucero and DM Reyes.

The workshop, which is the longest-running creative writing workshop in Asia, is coordinated by the Silliman University Department of English and Literature chaired by Andrea Soluta. The fellowship grantees are urged to immediately confirm their participation with Prof. Soluta. Additional fellowships may be awarded at least two other selected candidates once additional funding is assured.

Unfortunately for the fellows, they’ll probably only get to meet up with “Mom” Edith once or twice at best. In the fast few years, she’s been persuaded to conserve her energy by only appearing in one session to deliver one of her patented brilliant lectures on the crafting of poetry and prose.

When allowed by circumstances, she also hosts the fellows and panelists for dinner at her residence in Montemar, an upscale subdivision straddling a hill in Sibulan, a 20-minute drive north from Dumaguete. Her sprawling bungalow and lush garden overlook the coastline, thus offering a sweeping view of Tañon Strait and the southern tip of Cebu, and on a clear day, Bohol, Siquijor, and the land mass that is northern Mindanao. 

This week, some writer-friends are visiting Dumaguete for a couple of days so they can be with Mom Edith on her birthday. She’s sure to be in great good company on April 22, Earth Day, when she turns 90, as she’ll be with part of her extensive literary brood: Jimmy Abad, Susan Lara, Marj Evasco and Danny Reyes.

With her permission, here’s sharing excerpts from Susan’s excellent essay on our literary and spiritual mother (which appeared in full in the UP Centennial Edition, Likhaan 2008, published by UP-ICW):

“While (Edith L. Tiempo) gives equal weight to both conceptualization and articulation, lately she has been driven to harp on content by the undue importance placed on form by many writers today at the expense of content. This concentration on form, though, is quite understandable: at the outset, she said in a recent lecture: ‘It is taken for granted that the writer has something to say; the content is therefore early established and takes a back seat while the form and its craftsmanship gets the writer’s prominent attention.’

“The young writer who is told in a writers’ workshop that plain statements written in verse form do not constitute poetry, learns to use poetic devices such as ‘indirection, tone control, suggestiveness, ambivalence and ambiguity, thematic tension, understatement, among many others.’ As the writer attains more sophistication, this attention to poetic form sometimes becomes inordinate and overshadows content. Edith deplores this trend, and feels the need to bring the poet’s attention back to content. She couldn’t have been more emphatic than when she said, in a speech at the 56th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 2006, that ‘fine craftsmanship and thin substance is actually much ado about nothing.’

“In trying to correct the imbalance, Edith takes every chance to share with young writers some of the ways they can enhance poetic content: by reverberating the theme of the poem, through the use of details or situations that echo the meaning of the poem; by the use of indigenous wit, which entails paying attention to the earthy humor of folks we deal with every day [She cites as an example the family’s former cook, who once quipped, when Edith came home worn to a frazzle after class: ‘Budlay gayod maghimo’g ta-e.’ (It’s always wearisome to be making shit.)]; by using erudite terms and allusions, culled from religious texts and classical myths from ancient civilizations; (and) by adopting an unusual and startling idea to serve as the core of the poetic content.

“‘The poem owes its significance mostly to the use of its unusual core idea,’ she said in her lecture ‘Enhancing the Poetic Content.’ The lecture, first given in Cebu in February 2008, was sponsored by the NCCA and the UP Institute of Creative Writing. She reprised it for the benefit of fellows to the 47th National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete three months later.

“... It has been said that every artist needs two teachers: first, an exacting mentor who teaches the rules and then, an inspirational guru who gives you permission to follow your intuition, and when necessary, break the rules. But it is important that these teachers come into a student’s life in that order. The corporate cliché ‘thinking out of the box’ has meaning only if one has been inside the box.

“Writers who have had the good fortune to study under Edith Tiempo get the two teachers in one. These writers were either students of Silliman University or writing fellows of the National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete, or both.

“... University funding for the workshop stopped in 1992, and former workshop alumni banded together to keep the tradition going. Over the next 13 years, the workshop continued through the efforts of the Creative Writing Foundation, Inc.; CAP College; the Dumaguete Literary Arts Service Group, Inc.; the NCCA; and various groups and individuals who value our literary heritage.

“In the summer of 2008, the National Writers Workshop came home to Silliman University, thanks to SU President Ben Malayang. Plans are also shaping up for the establishment of the Edith and Edilberto Tiempo Writing Center in Montemar, not far from the Tiempo residence, where writers can come for residency, year-round. The building, which will be called Rose L. Sobrepeña Building, will consist of four cottages for the grantees, centered around a fifth cottage where the workshop will actually transpire. 

“Not all writing fellows who come to Dumaguete continue writing. Many have been claimed totally by their day jobs; some have decided they could give more in other roles, but keep writing as an option for a later phase in their lives. But for Edith, whether a fellow continues to write or not, the time spent in the workshop is never wasted, as long as they become good readers; if they learn to see ‘how a piece works’ through close reading and analysis, by looking for complexities, paradoxes, ironies, ambiguities in a literary work, and identifying a unifying idea or theme which resolves these tensions.

“On the last day of every workshop, Edith usually says, ‘This is the last day, and my heart aches because I want to give you so much more, and there is no more time for it.’ Many find that remark amazing, because she seems to draw from a bottomless reservoir of knowledge, insights, and patience.

“But it is never the last day, and the workshop never ends, not for the fellows who keep coming back to Dumaguete summer after summer.”

Susan has also created a Facebook Fan Page of Edith L. Tiempo. Our sisters and brothers who may wish to greet our Mom Edith on the day she turns into a nonagenarian can access it at the following url: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Edith-L-Tiermpo/69553464987?ref=ts

But since she calls me her “oldest son,” I’ll beat everyone to it and greet her now, in print: “Happy Birthday, Mom! Here’s all the love and tons of sunshine vibes!”