The UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (CCWLS) held the second edition of the Sulat Tomasino undergraduate creative writing seminar workshop for campus journalists from March 9 to 11 via Zoom.
The workshop, which is by invitation only, included campus editors-in-chief and literary editors of UST and other Dominican schools, representing the UST Nursing Journal, UST Purple Gazette, UST College of Science Journal, UST-Alfredo M. Velayo College of Accountancy Journal, The Flame, Thomasian Engineer, and the Varsitarian.
Improving the quality of campus journalism
Replacing the Center’s annual Thomasian Undergraduate Writers’ Workshop, Sulat Tomasino aims to improve the quality of campus journalism by helping the selected student writers become better at the craft of writing and editing.
The seminar participants listened to lectures about writing poetry, screenplay, and film reviews and applied what they learned by critiquing sample works.
The lectures and workshops were delivered and facilitated by CCWLS Director Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo, Assistant Director Ralph Semino Galan, and Resident Fellows Mark Angeles, Paul Alcoseba Castillo, Nerisa del Carmen Guevara, Jose Mojica, Ned Parfan, and Joselito Zulueta.
Sulat Tomasino is the brainchild of CCWLS Resident Fellows Joselito de los Reyes and Chuckberry Pascual, who served as this year’s seminar coordinators.
The Center’s Fellows are all faculty members of UST’s creative writing and literature programs.
Lectures on genre, craft
The workshop’s opening lecture was delivered by Pantoja-Hidalgo, who asked attendees to reflect on what is good writing: “…writing that is carefully crafted, writing that seeks to explore ideas or problems or issues which the writer feels strongly about, writing that is written, not just to share experiences, but to offer insights about these experiences.”
Poetry workshop panelists Guevara, Castillo, and Angeles discussed the standards of the different student publications for poetry, and what makes a poem good enough to be selected for publication. Parfan lectured on his process of writing poetry, using as examples the poems “Garden” and “Salome” from his “Epistles” sequence.
On the second day, Mojica taught scriptwriting basics using the film “Up” as an example. Also discussed were the similarities and differences between screenwriting and drama/playwriting, writing for an audience, and trying to balance art and business.
The last day saw Zulueta deliver a lecture on film criticism, while Angeles conducted another poetry workshop.
The CCWLS remains committed to continue offering the workshop to provide skills training to the campus journalists of the Dominican Network.
