ISBN 1-466-22033-3

CreateSpace: U.S.A., 2012

 

[from the Backcover by Melecio F. Turao]

 

The colorful and theatrical former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos—domineering, rhetorical, cunning, eloquent, smitten, and off her rocker, greedily takes the stage in this hypothetical play by transgressive Filipino writer Peter Solis Nery.

The powerful figures of Ninoy Aquino, Cardinal Sin, Ferdinand Marcos, and her lovers become merely stick figures, almost theatrical props, against Imelda’s monstrous presence on stage as we closely watch history as a parade of actors, wannabes, and losers.

The drama builds up, not on ground level, but in every character’s personal heaven. But wait, there’s more: even in the “afterlife,” Imelda gets to have it her way—she flits from one man’s heaven to another, in a cathartic “apparition” of some sort to purge herself of guilt, or play cute and philosophize her way out of it.

This is Imelda who is halfway between remorse and disbelief, but is fully consumed by the latter in the end. She isn’t sorry for what had happened—never—because everything will never measure up to pure art anyway.

The play doesn’t fall short on what’s “real and what’s imagined” in Imelda’s mind. Dead or alive, she has no way of drawing the line between the two. But, the supreme irony is that, in this metaphysical play, the Imelda who conceived the Cultural Center of the Philippines and dreamed up a vision of bringing “the true, the good and the beautiful” into a country that had mostly dreams for meals everyday, has done herself justice.

Peter Solis Nery’s Palanca Award-winning play “If the Shoe Fits” is a character study, plus a sprinkling of gestalt and pop psychology, that generously adds on to the Imelda Marcos lore.

ISBN 1-478-13998-6

CreateSpace: U.S.A., 2012

 

[from the Backcover]

 

Love in the Time of the Bakunawa is Peter Solis Nery’s first novella in English, and also his first full-length feature film as writer, producer, and director. It is the story of a loveless and struggling artist who comes home to an island only to realize that the island’s summer festival attraction that his grandmother created may yet provide the perfect background for finding his own success in love and career.

 

[from Chapter 14]

 

A naked hunk. A virgin. Midsummer’s night. On a moonlit beach. Now, rehearse the story.

On the third night, the story goes, with a full moon hanging low on the horizon, the second full moon of the month—a blue moon, to everyone’s shock, the bakunawa suddenly grew legs, transmogrified into a dazzlingly handsome man, his dark tanned features set off perfectly in a suit of purest white.

Now, on the festival beach, a dark-skinned man—young, athletic, hunky, extremely good-looking in a white long-sleeved shirt (unbuttoned), white sleeveless undershirt (clingy), white pants (now hugging his powerful legs) rose out of the water, shook off the water from his hair as if in slow motion. Like in a David Hasselhoff cologne commercial.

Run as fast as you can! he said to a girl who Matt judged to be barely eighteen.

I’m coming right behind you! warned the man in white as he started running on the water’s edge, splashing playfully as he went, chasing the girl in a white bra, white sarong wrap.

He caught her.

They rolled on the sand. Made frantic love on the sand under the moonlight.

Matt watched the couple in the sand. Then, turned away with Catholic guilt.

Again the story: rising out of the water, the bakunawa strode over the beach crushing the powerless shrimp under his large bare feet.

Behind his back, native men mocked him, snickered at his white costume, but none dared face him, for he had a terrifying mien and laughed wickedly at the crunching sound of shrimp shells underfoot.

Women, however, were beguiled by his raw manliness, threw themselves shamelessly at him, followed him like faithful pets.

 

ISBN 1-453-71071-X

CreateSpace: U.S.A., 2010

 

[from the Preface by Melecio F. Turao]

 

These poems were originally written in Hiligaynon and are best read in Hiligaynon. But I suppose the English translations can be taken on their own terms. When Nery set out to write these sonnets, he considered appealing to a wider audience. Nery has no trouble with his fellow Ilonggos (except perhaps the much expected gasps and tirades against his utter perversity) but if he has to call attention to sexual issues confronted by his milieu, he has to have a second, or third, or a dozen other opinions. Nery has heard enough of local opinions. This time, he wants to hear the world’s.

Peter Solis Nery is not under any illusion that graphic sex in whatever form commands sincere respect from critics and audiences. It is not his goal in this collection. But like it or not, sex sells. And sex is a thriving industry that has far bigger market than so-called serious literature. On the matter of poetics, Nery certainly takes issue with the relegating of taboo words to cheap thrills. To him, these words are neither pornographic nor immoral. They deserve as much space in everyday use as such words as dictator, politician, and prostitute. By using taboo words in a traditional poetic form like the sonnet, Nery is able to preserve them, and reclaim the Hiligaynon in the process.

ISBN 971-10-1206-9

New Day Publishers: Quezon City, 2009

 

[from the Foreword by R. A. Simson]

 

The Passion of Jovita Fuentes, a drama by Peter Solis Nery, captures the powerful sweep of political transformation that created the modern Philippine nation during the first half of the twentieth century. From the lives of well-known figures – Maestra Jovita Fuentes and President Manuel Roxas, who played important roles in Philippine history, Nery has woven a grand saga of love and betrayal in a time of social upheaval. Steeped in the grandeur of the struggle of colonial people for independence, The Passion of Jovita Fuentes is at the core a tragic story of lovers trapped by the conventions of a country that has failed to keep up with the forward march of society.

The Passion of Jovita Fuentes is Filipino writer Peter Solis Nery’s first full-length play in English. With the quest for Philippine independence as backdrop, Nery has created a spellbinding story out of the social and political forces that shaped the twentieth century. He has drawn with sensitivity and compassion the love story of two people whose lives shaped and were shaped by the country they loved. The play is a tribute to the power of art to overcome tragedy and to those whose fierce passion continues to ignite the spark of artistry in successive generations. It is surely one of the most important Filipino plays of the decade, having been awarded first prize in the prestigious Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 2008.

ISBN 971-92146-3-5

DreamWings Publishing: Iloilo, 2001

 

[from the Preface by Rosendo G. Mejica II]

 

With these ten heart-rending lyric poems, Peter Solis Nery establishes himself as the pre-eminent Prince of Ngoyngoy Poetry in Western Visayas.

I know that the first nine poems in this volume were written almost a decade ago in response to a competition. As a challenge, I asked Peter to compose, on the spot, the tenth poem for this collection, using a munggo bean for inspiration. The prize was the free printing of this book.

At an amazing speed of 29 minutes, Peter produced Ang Gugma nga daw Munggo [Love like a Mung Bean], agood rival to any of his nine earliest Hiligaynon lyric poems. In short, he won the bet. The Prince of Ngoyngoy can write.

I am convinced that this collection is a true Ilonggo treasure from the exciting Ilonggo poet who gave us such lyrical collections as: Fireflies for a Yuppie: Poems of Love and longing from a Country where Autumn Leaves do not Fall, and A Loneliness Greater than Love.

Like his English lyrics, Peter Solis Nery’s The Prince of Ngoyngoy collection awakens the world of invisible spirits to deep feeling. By expressing that which he feels in terms of all that he sees and hears in the provincial Dumangas where he grew up, he effortlessly moves heaven and earth. In doing so, he reminds us that to love, and to be human, is to be haunted.

I am proud to finance the publication of this very worthy Ilonggo poetry book.