The UST for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS) conducted the 2016 edition of its National Writers’ Workshop from July 24 to 30, 2016 at the Ridgewood Residence Hotel in Baguio City.
The writing fellows for this year were: Maria Tanya P. Cruz (UST) and Francis Paolo M. Quina (UP Diliman) for fiction in English; Maria Nikka P. Policarpio (UST) and Eric John B. Villena (Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan) for fiction in Filipino; Paul M. Jerusalem (Yale-National University of Singapore) and Timothy F. Ong (Ateneo de Manila/ UP Diliman) for poetry in English; Andrea Alban (UST) and Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas (UST) for poetry in Filipino; John Patrick I. Allanegui (Ateneo de Manila) and Jennie Arado (UP Mindanao) for creative nonfiction in English; and Giselle R. Dela Cruz (UST) and Rhea B. Gulin (Philippine Normal University) for creative nonfiction in Filipino.
The senior guest panelists of this year’s Workshop were Mr. Marne Kilates, one of the most renowned poet-translators of the Philippines, and Philippine High School for the Arts Director V.E. Carmelo Nadera, Jr., who is a former editor-in-chief of the Varsitarian, the founder of its annual Gawad USTetika Literary Awards and a former director of the UP Institute of Creative Writing. The participation of this year’s senior guest panelists was made possible through the sponsorship of the Varsitarian.
Poet-critic and CCWLS Assistant Director Ralph Semino Galán, served as the Workshop Director, while fictionist-playwright and CCWLS Resident Fellow Chuckberry J. Pascual, PhD, served as the Workshop Coordinator.
Aside from Kilates, Nadera, Galán and Pascual, the teaching panel was also composed of UST CCWLS Director Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, PhD, and UST CCWLS Resident Fellows Department of Literature Chair Joyce Arriola, PhD, UST Publishing House Deputy Director Ma. Ailil B. Alvarez, Joselito D. Delos Reyes, Dawn Laurente Marfil, Ned Parfan, Chuckberry J. Pascual, PhD, John Jack G. Wigley, PhD, and Joselito B. Zulueta.
UP Diliman’s U Z. Eliserio, fictionist-critic and UST Publishing House author, was also part of the panel.
Some of the UST CCWLS’s Resident Fellows delivered lectures in creative and critical writing at the University of the Cordilleras as part of the UST CCWLS Outreach Lecture Series in Baguio City.
During the Graduation Ceremonies and Fellows’ Night of the Workshop, Faculty of Arts and Letters Dean Prof. Michael Anthony Vasco, PhD, delivered a very erudite speech on the “literary text” as seen from a philosophical perspective in his opening remarks, while Hidalgo further encouraged the Writing Fellows to pursue the craft of creative writing, as well as thanked the faculty members for having accepted to be part of the distinguished teaching panel.
