PALANCA AWARDEES

PERIOD OF ACTIVISM

Art Christian V. Dimla

BEE II-2PSU Bayambang

PALANCA MEMORIAL AWARDS

FOR LITERATUREIt was established in 1950 and had giving cash prizes for short story, poetry, and (one-act) play writing as an incentive for Filipino writers.

LA TONDENA INC. – this is where the prizes in the awards came from. This firm was founded by the late Carlos Palanca Sr.

PALANCA AWARDEES(1970-71)

Short Story1st Prize – “The Ritual” by Cirilo F. Bautista2nd Prize – “Beast in the Fields” by Resil Mojares3rd Prize – “Children of the City” by Amadis Ma. Guerrero

Poetry1st Prize – “The Archipelago” by Cirilo F. Bautista2nd Prize – “Five Poems” by Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez3rd Prize – “From Mactan to Mendiola” by Frederico Licsi Espino Jr.

PALANCA AWARDEES(1970-71)

One-act Play1st Prize – “The Grotesque among Us ” by Maiden Flores

PALANCA AWARDEES(1971-72)

Short Story1st Prize – “The Tomato Game” by N.V.M. Gonzales2nd Prize – “The Apollo Centennial” by Gregorio C. Brillantes3rd Prize – “After this, Our Exile” by Elsa Martinez Coscolluela

Poetry1st Prize – “Batik Maker and Other Poems” by Virginia R. Moreno2nd Prize – “The Edge of the Wind” by Artemio Tadena3rd Prize – “Tinikling (A Sheaf of Poems)” by Frederico Licsi Espino Jr.

PALANCA AWARDEES(1971-72)

One-act Play1st Prize – “Grave for Blue Flower” by Jesus T. Peralta2nd Prize – “The Undiscovered Country” by Manuel M. Martell3rd Prize – “The Boxes” by Rolando S. Tinio

- “Now is the Time for All Good Men to Come to the Aid of Their Country” by Julian E. Dacanay

- “The Renegade” by Elsa Martinez Coscolluela

VIRGINIA MORENO Tough and tender poets have installed Virginia R. Moreno as Philippine poetry’s high priestess. Batik Maker and Other Poems is her sole and much-coveted book of poems. Of the 13 handcrafted copies made for its 1975 CCP-launching, 5 vanished altogether, spirited away by those possessed by its lush dreamwork and haunting strains.

Bookmaker Hilario S. Francia meticulously crafted and stitched each copy of the book. Moreno herself chose the batik-cloth cover, in the famous broken-sword motif of Javanese royalty, and flew it in from Jakarta. Her brother, Jose Moreno, supplied the Kyoto ricepaper for its pages, bought from one of his Osaka sojourns. Lucrecia Kasilag deployed her gamelan orchestra for the occasion. Vic Silayan and Lolita Rodriguez, along with Moreno’s diplomat friends, recited the poems in three languages—in the lyrical English master text, in the elegant French translation, and in Larry Francia’s masterful Filipino.

In 2004, Virginia Moreno allowed the Ateneo library to craft the copy on display, a meticulous reproduction of the original—on the occasion of ALIWW’s anniversary tribute for Moreno’s lifetime work in poetry, theater, and the art of cinema.

Tissue of no seam and skinOf no scale she weaves this:Dream of a huntsman pale

That in his antleredMangrove waits

Ensnared;

 

And I cannot touch him.

Batik MakerVirginia Moreno

Lengths of the dumb and widthsOf the deaf are his hair

Where wild orchids thumbOr his parted throat surprise

To elegiac screamingOnly birds of

Paradise:

 

And I cannot wake him.

Shades of the light and shapesOf the rain on his palanquinStain what phantom panther

Sleeps in the cage ofHis skin and immobile

Hands;

 

And I cannot bury him.

THANKS FOR COOPERATING!