LOS ANGELES-BASED Filipino orthopedic nurse Peter Solis Nery was inducted into the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame in an awarding ceremony held at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City on Saturday night.

The 43-year-old Nery, a native of Iloilo province, earned the honor after clinching the top prize in the Poetry for Children in English category for his collection “Punctuation”, which he dedicated to “young writers trying to separate sentences and phrases.” He also won second prize in the Filipino division of that category for his collection “Sa Mundo ng mga Kulisap.”

Nery’s “Punctuation” victory is his fifth first-place win, fulfilling the requirement for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. His previous first-placing works are his Hiligaynon short stories “Lirio” (1998), “Candido” (2007), and “Donato Bugtot” (2011), as well as his English full-length play “The Passion of Jovita Fuentes” (2008).

His other winning works are the Hiligaynon short stories “Ang Pangayaw” (third prize, 2000) and “Ang Kapid” (second prize, 2006); the English one-act play “The Wide Ionian Sea” (third prize, 2010); the English children’s poetry collection “The Shape of Happiness” (second prize, 2011); and the English full-length play “If the Shoe Fits (Or, The Five Men Imelda Marcos Meets in Heaven) (second prize, 2011).

Nery is the 23rd person inducted into the Hall of Fame. Previous inductees include the late National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando Tinio; acclaimed screenwriter-director Jun Lana; Man Asian Literary Prize finalists Dr. Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr. and Alfred “Krip” Yuson; and Dr. Isagani R. Cruz, president of The Manila Times College.

Yuson and Cruz, joined by fellow Hall of Fame honorees Manuel Buising, Reynaldo Duque, Dr. Eugene Evasco, Dr. Luis Gatmaitan, and Edgardo Maranan, helped Carlos Palanca Foundation Director General Sylvia Palanca-Quirino and Carlos Palanca 4th present a silver plaque to Nery in recognition of his latest achievement during the ceremony.

Asked about his induction, Nery expressed satisfaction for “having achieved what I [had] set out to do,” as well as the need to prove himself more to justify his inclusion.

Honored

The ceremony’s guest of honor, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., was presented with the Dangal ng Lahi award by Quirino and Palanca. In his speech, Jimenez extolled his department’s efforts to promote the country through its campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”, and expressed interest in acquiring books for the agency’s events.

In her speech, Quirino noted that many creative writers have deepened their love of country and offered their time and talent “by writing how it is to be Filipino, and by submitting their entries to our annual contest.”

“Whether a writer wins or loses in a contest is of no great moment, really. It is a win-win process when one commits his thoughts, insights, imagination, and commentary on paper. That is what the Filipino writer does, whether he wins a Palanca prize or not,” she said.

Quirino also announced her foundation’s forthcoming publication of a series of books—“I Did It—So Can You!”—that celebrates Filipinos from modest backgrounds who achieved great success in their chosen fields, as well as the establishment of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards Research Facility in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Other highlights of the ceremony include a poetry reading of Nery’s “Punctuation” poems, performed by poet Marjorie Evasco and stage actor Miguel Faustmann, and actors Robert Seña and Candy Pangilinan performing an excerpt of Joshua Lim So’s “Joe Cool: Aplikante”, which won first prize in the One-act Play in Filipino category.

Established in 1950 in honor of Carlos Palanca Sr., the Palanca Awards aims to help develop Philippine literature by providing incentives to creative writers to craft their best works, and be a treasury for such works. It is often dubbed the Philippine version of the United States’ Pulitzer Prize.

© Alvin I. Dacanay & Manila Times: September 3, 2012

ILONGGO writer-filmmaker-artist Peter Solis Nery was inducted September 1 into the elite circle of the Palanca Hall of Fame joining the country’s most brilliant names in Philippine literature.

Considered as the Philippine version of the Pulitzer Prize, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature remains as the gold standard for writing excellence.

At least eight National Artists for Literature, including Francisco Arcellana, NVM Gonzalez, F. Sionel Jose, Nick Joaquin, Bienvenido Lumbera, are previous Palanca winners, none, however, are hall of famers.

The Palanca Hall of Fame Award is a coveted distinction presented to a writer who has won five first place prizes in the regular categories of the annual writing competition. Nery is the 23rd Hall of Famer in the Palanca Awards’ 62-year history, and the fourth Ilonggo after Elsa Coscoluella (1999), Jose Dalisay, Jr. (2000) and Leoncio Deriada (2001).

Nery has won a total of 11 Palanca honors since 1998 for his works in Hiligaynon fiction, one-act and full-length plays in English, and poetry for children in English and Filipino.

 

Journey to five golds

When Nery won his first Palanca gold medal for his short story in Hiligaynon in 1998, he was delirious because every writer worth his title covets a Palanca Award, the longest-running and most prestigious literary award in the country that is often called “the Pulitzer Prize of the Philippines.”

Did he ever see himself winning five golds to join the elite circle of Filipino writers in the Palanca Hall of Fame at that time?

“No.” His philosophy has always been, “If the Palanca is so prestigious, why does anyone need more than one?” but it surely did encourage him to write more. In recent years, he has always lamented that “in a country where writers are often poor, and people do not really buy books, the Palanca Awards was [his] only great incentive to write creatively.”

Fourteen years later, and after winning a total of 11 Palanca awards, including a fifth first prize this year for poetry written for children in English, Nery is still wildly ecstatic.

“I never imagined I would be inducted to the Hall of Fame with a win in poetry, and in English, too. Believe it or not, I joined the Palanca contests only because, and only after, they had opened a category in Hiligaynon. I only wanted to be recognized as a great writer in Hiligaynon, but I guess it pays to be bilingual, or trilingual, or multilingual, in my case.”

Nery’s first four Palanca awards were for short stories in Hiligaynon, two of which were first prize winners for “Lirio” (1998) and “Candido” (2007).

In 2008, he won a gold medal for full-length play in English for his “The Passion of Jovita Fuentes.” His other wins in English include awards for his one-act play “The Wide Ionian Sea” (2010), and poetry written for children—last year’s “The Shape of Happiness,” and this year’s gold medalist “Punctuation.”

In addition to the first prize for “Punctuation,” Nery also won second prize for the category tulang pambata in Filipino this year.

 

© The Daily Guardian: September 4, 2012

ILOILO City – Joining the esteemed roster of the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame this year is multi-awarded Ilonggo poet, fictionist and author Peter Solis Nery.

He clinched the prestigious distinction after winning his fifth first prize for “Punctuation” under the Poetry for Children category in this year’s contest.

Winners of this year’s Palanca Awards were honored in the annual awarding ceremonies held at The Peninsula Manila in Makati City recently.

Now on its 62^nd year, the Palanca Awards received a total of 1,077 entries in 20 categories. Out of these submissions, 59 winning works were selected from 58 writers—with half (29 authors) are first-time winners.

Nery was inducted into the Palanca Hall of Fame for bagging a total of five first prize winning works. These are:

• 1998 – “Lirio,” Short Story – Hiligaynon
• 2007 – “Candido,” Short Story – Hiligaynon
• 2008 – “The Passion of Jovita Fuentes,” Full-length Play
• 2011 – “Donato Bugtot,” Short Story – Hiligaynon
• 2012 – “Punctuation,” Poetry for Children.

Meanwhile, during the gala ceremonies, the Gawad Dangal ng Lahi was conferred on guest of honor Department of Tourism Secretary Ramon R. Jimenez Jr.

Jimenez is a writer, mentor, former instructor, marketing communications expert, and one of the pillars of Philippine advertising.

As the creative force behind the latest tourism campaign, Jimenez hopes to build enough energy around tourism to give the Philippines a positive image, making it key driver of the country’s socio-economic progress.

The Palanca Awards, the country’s most prestigious and longest-running literary competition, was established in 1950 in honor of Don Carlos Palanca Sr.

The Awards aims to help develop Philippine literature by providing incentives for writers to craft their most outstanding literary works and by being a treasury of the Philippines’ literary gems from our gifted writers and to assist in the dissemination to the public, particularly the students.

Now hosting a total of 2,111 winning works, the Palanca Awards has been enriching the country’s cultural heritage by recognizing the best works all over the country. What started as a small yet potent collection of six short stories in 1951 has now grown into a wide and deep treasury of the finest of Philippine literature in 22 categories.

The Carlos Palanca Foundation currently has in its collection 542 short stories, 372 collections of poetry, 214 essays, 349 one-act plays, 188 full-length plays, 60 teleplays, 57 screenplays, 154 stories for children, 34 futuristic fiction stories, 83 student essays, 36 novels, and 22 collections of poetry for children. These winning works are continuously made accessible to students, and all researchers and lovers of literature through the Foundation library and its official website, www.palancaawards.com.ph.

 

© Panay News: September 4, 2012

When Ilonggo writer Peter Solis Nery won his first Palanca gold medal for his short story in Hiligaynon in 1998, he was delirious because every writer worth his title covets a Palanca Award, the longest-running and most prestigious literary award in the country that is often called “the Pulitzer Prize of the Philippines.”

Did he ever see himself winning five golds to join the elite circle of Filipino writers in the Palanca Hall of Fame at that time? No, his philosophy has always been, “If the Palanca is so prestigious, why does anyone need more than one?” but it surely did encourage him to write more. In recent years, he has always lamented that “in a country where writers are often poor, and people do not really buy books, the Palanca Awards was [his] only great incentive to write creatively.”

Fourteen years later, and after winning a total of 11 Palanca awards, including a fifth first prize this year for poetry written for children in English, Nery is still wildly ecstatic. “I never imagined I would be inducted to the Hall of Fame with a win in poetry [!], and in English [!], too! Believe it or not, I joined the Palanca contests only because, and only after, they had opened a category in Hiligaynon. I only wanted to be recognized as a great writer in Hiligaynon, but I guess it pays to be bilingual, or trilingual, or multilingual, in my case.”

Nery’s first four Palanca awards were for short stories in Hiligaynon, two of which were first prize winners for “Lirio” (1998) and “Candido” (2007). In 2008, he won a gold medal for full-length play in English for his “The Passion of Jovita Fuentes.” His other wins in English include awards for his one-act play “The Wide Ionian Sea” (2010), and poetry written for children—last year’s “The Shape of Happiness,” and this year’s gold medalist “Punctuation.” In addition to the first prize for “Punctuation,” Nery also won second prize for the category tulang pambata in Filipino this year.

 

Master class in drama

Nery will hold a Master Class in Drama (Stage Writing, Performance, and Production) on September 6, Thursday, at the Oton National High School. The event, sponsored by the Department of Education Iloilo Division, will be attended by secondary school English and Creative Writing teachers from all over the province.

The 2012 Palanca Hall of Famer, who hails from Dumangas, Iloilo, and who is now based in Los Angeles, California as an orthopedic nurse, regularly comes home to the country to deliver master classes in various and diverse disciplines. Last year, he also toured a Master Class on Writing Great Sentences for teachers and students all over Western Visayas.

Nery is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America since 2009.

 

© The News Today: September 4, 2012

LOS ANGELES-BASED Filipino orthopedic nurse Peter Solis Nery was inducted into the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Fame in an awarding ceremony held at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City on Saturday night.

The 43-year-old Nery, a native of Iloilo province, earned the honor after clinching the top prize in the Poetry for Children in English category for his collection “Punctuation”, which he dedicated to “young writers trying to separate sentences and phrases.” He also won second prize in the Filipino division of that category for his collection “Sa Mundo ng mga Kulisap.”

Nery’s “Punctuation” victory is his fifth first-place win, fulfilling the requirement for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. His previous first-placing works are his Hiligaynon short stories “Lirio” (1998), “Candido” (2007), and “Donato Bugtot” (2011), as well as his English full-length play “The Passion of Jovita Fuentes” (2008).

His other winning works are the Hiligaynon short stories “Ang Pangayaw” (third prize, 2000) and “Ang Kapid” (second prize, 2006); the English one-act play “The Wide Ionian Sea” (third prize, 2010); the English children’s poetry collection “The Shape of Happiness” (second prize, 2011); and the English full-length play “If the Shoe Fits (Or, The Five Men Imelda Marcos Meets in Heaven) (second prize, 2011).

Nery is the 23rd person inducted into the Hall of Fame. Previous inductees include the late National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando Tinio; acclaimed screenwriter-director Jun Lana; Man Asian Literary Prize finalists Dr. Jose “Butch” Dalisay Jr. and Alfred “Krip” Yuson; and Dr. Isagani R. Cruz, president of The Manila Times College.

Yuson and Cruz, joined by fellow Hall of Fame honorees Manuel Buising, Reynaldo Duque, Dr. Eugene Evasco, Dr. Luis Gatmaitan, and Edgardo Maranan, helped Carlos Palanca Foundation Director General Sylvia Palanca-Quirino and Carlos Palanca 4th present a silver plaque to Nery in recognition of his latest achievement during the ceremony.

Asked about his induction, Nery expressed satisfaction for “having achieved what I [had] set out to do,” as well as the need to prove himself more to justify his inclusion.

 

Honored

The ceremony’s guest of honor, Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr., was presented with the Dangal ng Lahi award by Quirino and Palanca. In his speech, Jimenez extolled his department’s efforts to promote the country through its campaign “It’s More Fun in the Philippines”, and expressed interest in acquiring books for the agency’s events.

In her speech, Quirino noted that many creative writers have deepened their love of country and offered their time and talent “by writing how it is to be Filipino, and by submitting their entries to our annual contest.”

“Whether a writer wins or loses in a contest is of no great moment, really. It is a win-win process when one commits his thoughts, insights, imagination, and commentary on paper. That is what the Filipino writer does, whether he wins a Palanca prize or not,” she said.

Quirino also announced her foundation’s forthcoming publication of a series of books—“I Did It—So Can You!”—that celebrates Filipinos from modest backgrounds who achieved great success in their chosen fields, as well as the establishment of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards Research Facility in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Other highlights of the ceremony include a poetry reading of Nery’s “Punctuation” poems, performed by poet Marjorie Evasco and stage actor Miguel Faustmann, and actors Robert Seña and Candy Pangilinan performing an excerpt of Joshua Lim So’s “Joe Cool: Aplikante”, which won first prize in the One-act Play in Filipino category.

Established in 1950 in honor of Carlos Palanca Sr., the Palanca Awards aims to help develop Philippine literature by providing incentives to creative writers to craft their best works, and be a treasury for such works. It is often dubbed the Philippine version of the United States’ Pulitzer Prize.

© Alvin I. Dacanay & Manila Times: September 3, 2012