Writing Workshop Fellows Unite

[§ínned™]

Are there Iligan, UP, UST, Silliman writing workshop fellows here?

§inned™

[vijdaq]

What, no one wants to admit it? Ok, I'll own up. I've been to the Silliman workshop, in the days when Edilberto Tiempo was alive and breathing fire. I've been to the UP workshop...and as an afterthought I went to the 3-day workshop conducted by my alma mater, USC in Cebu, the Cornelio Faigao workshop. I'm afraid my mind was hardly ever on matters literary during any of those workshops...it was usually on the beer-drinking and guitar-playing hours!

[§ínned™]

Yeap a very sad day when Dr. Edilberto died. How's Ma'am Tiempo?

What UP batch are you, vijdaq? I've heard they stopped holding the workshop in Baguio? Te hehehe! Yeap, in UP-Baguio, we were more into ghost-hunting, beer-drinking, and discos than the workshop itself. ;)

§inned™

[vijdaq]

§inned: I was in the UP workshop in Tacloban in October 1996. It wasn't exactly in Tacloban; it was at the MacArthur Park Hotel in Palô some 12 kms from downtown Tacloban. Palô is famed for its bahalina, and we did not fail to imbibe copious amounts of this potent drink. Bahalina heats up the body, so it was standard for us to lower body temperatures by late-night romps in either or both of the swimming pools.

Of the people there, you'll probably recognize these by their first names alone: the Director was Merlie, the panelists were Jun and Neil of UP, Vic of UP Visayas, Maripal of Cebu (a magazine editor), and Tim of Silliman. (Tim has left Silliman and is now with UP Davao, where his boss is Ricky de U.) The staffer was Carla. Of the fellows, the ones from Manila included Sem, Me-Ann, Bhang, Gina, Rhandy, and Totoy--although Totoy was there as a fellow for poetry in Waray. The fellows from Cebu were Tem, Adonis, Ven, Ronald, Rey the Jesuit brother ("I'm not a Father but I can father") and me. From Dumaguete there was Shelfa. Have I forgotten anybody? I hope not!

Regarding the UP Workshop in Baguio, it has never left Baguio. UP has three workshops every year, one in Davao, one in the Visayas (Tacloban, Cebu, or Iloilo) and one in Baguio. What made you think they gave up Baguio? I don't know but I can guess: what happened was that one year it was transferred from the usual location, the Hotel Salome. They held it in a real hotel, one that rated, oh I don't know, 3 or 4 stars. They soon found that the number of stars a hotel boasts is largely irrelevant when it's a writers' workshop you're into. The following year the workshop regained its senses and returned to the Salome. The Hotel Salome is probably a no-star hotel (it's actually a big house converted into a hotel) but it has character. It has ambience. It exudes a homey kind of atmosphere. The staff are professionals: they're all HRM graduates, they're all good at working quietly and then receding into the background, and they're all very pretty. The food is good Filipino cuisine and they have fish a lot of the time--and you know fish isn't all that easy to procure in a town that's 5000 feet above sea level. Probably the only thing the Salome doesn't have that a 4-star hotel would have is bathtubs. But its showers give forth hot water, very important in Baguio; us lowlanders would otherwise find it impossible to bathe in the morning there.

I got to see the Salome this year when I joined them there (end of March/beginning of April) for the first two days, not as a fellow this time but as a guest lecturer. I gave a talk on the concept of "pushing the enelope" in the writing of fiction. I don't think I made any sense, but in the open forum that followed, they were all kind enough to ask me incisive questions exactly as if I'd delivered a brilliant lecture!


[This message has been edited by vijdaq (edited 07-07-2000).]

[§ínned™]

Hi vijdaq! Great experiences! I am not quite sure about the UP workshop in Baguio now, but during my time, we were billeted at the UP Breha, dorm to some ghostly phenomenas. We had our meals at the UP canteen and did the workshops in classrooms, and oh, held the workshop graduation ceremonies at the UP gym. Everything was held in UP. There were film screenings and incredible Baguio-based activities, too. We were only like 20 (7 from UST, 3 from UP-Diliman, 2 from La Salle, 2 from Ateneo, 1 from FEU, 1 from Baguio, 1 from the UP-Visayas, I think, and a couple more from the southern part of the Philippines.

There were nights when some co-fellows and I spent countless hours with Kidlat Tahimik, watching and discussing his films, and sipping brewed coffee while others do their beers at his cute house (I don't agree with him till now about his absurd abhorrence to Hollywood, though). Oh well...

I haven't heard about splitting the workshop into three: Davao, Baguio and the Visayas. I think they haven't done this in the early 90s.

Yes, I know some of the people you've mentioned like Neil (Garcia) and Vic (Deriada?), and the others who I might have known in my past life.

§inned™

[leelayce]

sinned and everyone else:

please naman inform me of any GOOD workshop, upcoming man or months from now pa. kasi i really want to attend writing workshops eh. please? i should've attended UP this summer kaya lang i have my OJT to attend to.

6000 nga eh, ang mahal, what's so expensive about that anyway?

is 6000 worth the worskhop?

[vijdaq]

leelayce, 6000? what are you talking about? all these workshops give fellowships. it's free everything, plus the UP workshop gives you a stipend, too. of course you have to get accepted as a fellow...something like 200-300 writers apply every year, and maybe 60 of them get fellowships, 20 to each of the 3 workshops. The figures for the Silliman and Iligan workshops must be similar to that...many apply but few are chosen. You use a pen name when sending in your application, so they choose whether to accept you or not entirely on the basis of your written works.
Been to the UP CWC's website? They have a piece on the last workshop. http://members.zoom.com/likhaan_online/

[leelayce]

VIJDAQ: hindi ko naintindihan. kasi when i called up UP sabi ng sumagot i have to pay 6000 daw, and that includes, the lunch and the kit and etc. may stipend? wow talga?

eh what do u mean by fellowships ba? what does it mean? hindi ba yun pareho sa workshop? gosh! sobrang ignorante ko, sorry ah. paki explain naman o. at hindi pala lahat na-qua-qualify? ang gulo!

[§ínned™]

leelaycee, you don't need to pay anything. Maybe you are talking about those short writing courses. Vijdaq and §inned™ are talking about writing fellowships given by schools. Just submit your works to UPCWC, hmmmm, but usually the workshops are held in summer. What school are you from? These schools have writing workshop fellowships: UP (CWC), UST (TWG), La Salle, and Silliman and they are open to everybody. However, writing workshops are usuallly held during summer break. You will be given fellowship if they like your submitted works.

§inned™

[asterisk]

These workshops they are talking about are writing fellowships. They are grants awarded to aspiring writers to hone their crafts. If you mingle with writers you would be hearing a lot about it. The institution bestowing these workshop fellowships select the fellows on the quality of the submitted of works. There are schedules of submission. Since usually, these workshops are held in summer, the start of manuscript acceptance is set usually between December to February. If you are chosen, they will send you a notification letter and off you go for a magical and enriching time.

At present there are four writing workshops in the country:

The University of the Philippines Summer Writers Workshop held in Baguio. The UP Writing Workshop burgeoned into many workshops held during the course of the year and in different locations like Tacloban, Davao, etc. But the main worskhop is still held in Baguio.

The Iligan National Writers Workshop and Literature Teachers Conference. This is held in Iligan City and is sponsored by The MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, the local government of Iligan City, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts and many private agencies. The workshop is held simulateneously. But the workshpw fellows are not required to attend the Literature Teachers Conference, but the teachers are required to attend the workshop. The observe while the worskhop is conducted and they get to comment and eventually learn about the creative process and what goes in the making of a literary work.

The Dumaguete National Writers Workshop. This is the most prestigious and longest running writing workshop in the country, which was founded by great writers Edilberto and Edith Tiempo. Previously it was under the the auspicers of the SIlliman University so the worskhop is popularly known as the Silliman Worskhop.

And the youngest is the University of Sto. Tomas Writers Workshop, held at UST's newly created Center for Creative Writing and Studies.

Note while the workshops are under the auspices and care of the university, it does not mean that they are only accept students of a particular university for its workshop. Your acceptance depends on the merit of your submmitted works.

[SuzieWong23]

lemme see ... Silliman Summer Writers Workshop, waaay back in '82, UP Diliman in '85, Cornelio Faigao (USC-Cebu) still in '85, MSU-IIT (Iligan) in '97, UP-Davao also in '97.

Yup! Been toasted, grilled, fried and digested (maybe even spit out) by the best of the best (so they say) writers in the country.

I may hold the record for being the youngest fellow to Silliman (at 18 years of age) but then again, someone may have broken that already. Yikes! I just dated myself!

Which one is the best? Silliman, undoubtedly, although true-blue yupeeians may dispute this.

Then again, I have seen Samal Island before the carnage, Marawi in the midst of relative peace... Diliman in the days of Roger Sicat, Ricaredo Demetillo, and NVM Gonzales, ah, and yes, Silliman in the days of Dad Tiempo when he used to call me Maria ...




[Edited by SuzieWong23 on 01-05-2001 at 12:31 PM]

[sadirmata]

pasali naman...

may mga alumni ba dito ng 26th UP Workshop sa Baguio noong 1996? pabalita naman...

[SuzieWong23]

Originally posted by §ínned™
Are there Iligan, UP, UST, Silliman writing workshop fellows here?

§inned™


Buhay pa ba yang UST Workshop? Penge naman ng details =)

[SuzieWong23]

Originally posted by sadirmata
pasali naman...

may mga alumni ba dito ng 26th UP Workshop sa Baguio noong 1996? pabalita naman...

'96? Would that mean Ulyses Aparece and/or Myke Obenieta of Cebu? Kung tama ako, check out Armand Gloriosa's website for a directory which contains these guys' email addys and a bunch of other things besides:

http://homepages.go.com/~armandgloriosa/directory.htm

Hope that helps =)

[sadirmata]

i think batch 97 sina Mike at Ulysses... some alumni of batch '96 ng UP Workshop sa Baguio ay sina Richard Gappi, Khan De la Cruz, Lorenzo Paran III, Conchitina Cruz, Mayette Bayuga, Edward Perez, Jose Victor Torres, Alvin Yapan, etc.

thanks for the info anyway...


Originally posted by SuzieWong23

'96? Would that mean Ulyses Aparece and/or Myke Obenieta of Cebu? Kung tama ako, check out Armand Gloriosa's website for a directory which contains these guys' email addys and a bunch of other things besides:

http://homepages.go.com/~armandgloriosa/directory.htm

Hope that helps =)

[Kaoru_Himura]

So does UP offer workshops/short courses in writing? If they do, can someone provide me with their contact numbers? thanks a lot :D

[overbyte]

hello! any batch '95 (UP Writers Workshop) here? :)

[asterisk]

UP Baguio batch '95? 'Yun ba 'yung Children's Writing batch na may kasama pang illustrators. If that's it, then I am from Batch '95.

[overbyte]

Yes! Children's lit ang genre noong 95! Hello! :D