DevCom graduate joins Palanca winners

November 06, 2009

A COLLECTION of poems about \"sa kung anong naisasantabi dahil part na siya ng mga ginagawa natin araw-araw\" by Charles Bonoan Tuvilla, a 2003 development communication graduate, bagged top awards in this year’s Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in ceremonies held Sept. 1 at the Peninsula Hotel Manila in Makati City.

\"Sambutil na Daigdig sa Ilalim ng Pilik\", a poetry collection by Tuvilla, won third prize in the Tula (poetry in Filipino) category. \"Ilang Sandali Makalipas ang Huling Araw ng Mundo\" by Reagan R. Maiquez won first prize while \"Yaong Pakpak na Binunot sa Akin\" by Alwynn C. Javier got second prize.

Tuvilla received the award along with more than 50 other awardees, most of whom were new literature talents in their 20s. This year also saw the most number of first time winners – more than 60 percent – on the 59th year of the most prestigious and longest-running literary contest in the country.

Established in 1950 to honor Don Carlos Palanca Sr., the competition aims to help develop Philippine literature for writers to craft their most outstanding literary work; to be a treasury of the Philippines’ literary gems from gifted writers; and to assist in the dissemination of these to the public, especially to students.\"

About Tuvilla

Tuvilla grew up in Bangui, Ilocos Norte and currently working as a travel specialist in a call center in Ayala, Makati City. He was former literary editor of Sirmata, the official college students’ publication of MMSU, in 2002-2003.

In his e-mail, he did not fail to acknowledge that he started with Sirmata \"pero puro English nga lang ang ginagawa ko noon\", he said.

As LIRA fellow

His winning poem collection is a product of his workshop entries as a fellow and eventually a member of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo or LIRA, an organization of poets writing in the Filipino language established in 1985 by National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario, more popularly known as Rio Alma.

He became a LIRA fellow in 2006 and went through a series of weekly writing assignments for six months ranging from traditional forms and genres to free verse under Almario. In his e-mail, he said: \"Masakit magpaworkshop si Sir Rio kasi talagang katay kung katay, at wala talagang preno ang bibig niya kapag pangit ang outputs ng fellows. Kumbaga, yong isang linggo mong ginawa na tula, pwedeng less than a minute lang mapagtutuunan ng pansin kapag my mali sa rhyme, o mali ang bilang ng taludtud.\"

From among 50 applicants of his batch, he was eventually chosen, along with seven others, as LIRA member. \"Maliban sa members’ workshops, kami na rin ang kumakatay dun sa mga bagong fellows, so tuloy pa rin ang katayan!\" he related.

About his winning poem collection

According to him, his collection is composed of \"observations sa kung anong naisasantabi kasi part na sila ng ginagawa natin araw-araw.\" Majority of the poems are \"silent\" (tahimik) and short (maiikli) \"kasi nakakaasar ang masyadong madaldal na tula,\" he said. \"Isang mahalagang lesson sa LIRA ang pagtitimpi: mas marami kang masasabi kapag tahimik ang surface ng gawa mo,\" he added.

Tuvilla said that in his collection, he concentrated on a type of poetry called \"imagism\", a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It aims at clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images. \"May mga natutuwa lang at gagawa ng dalawang imagist na tula, feeling nila ok na. Sa akin, sinadya kong mag-stay sa paggawa ng imagist poems kahit alam kong magsasawa din ako,\" he said.

As IYAS fellow

Tuvilla also became a fellow in the 8th Iyas Creative Writing Workshop in 2008. This is held every summer in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. It was first conducted in 2001 as a module in that year’s Negros Summer Workshops in Multimedia. Since then, it has grown into an independent workshop managed by the University of St. La Salle (USLS) in cooperation with the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Each year, the workshop awards 15 fellowships to writers from all over the country in the genres of fiction, poetry, and drama, and the languages English, Filipino, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon.

According to Tuvilla, the workshop is one of the major literary activities in the country participated by the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, Siliman University, and the Mindanao State Unviersity Iligan Institute of Technology, among other institutions.

As Miclat Poetry Award finalist

Recently, Tuvilla emerged one of the three finalists in the Filipino division of the Maningning Miclat Poetry Award, handed out yearly since 2003 in honor of the late Maningning, who was a trilingual poet, writer, teacher, and translator born in Beijing. She passed away in September 2000 when she was 27. She was a LIRA member.