Archives for January 2008

Peter Gordon, Executive Director of the Man Asian Literary Prize, will be in Manila on Thursday, January 24, to promote the prize among Filipino writers and to speak on “International Opportunities for Filipino Writers.”

The UP Institute of Creative Writing is hosting his talk, which will be held on January 24 at 2:30 pm in the AVR Room, 2nd floor, Rizal Hall (Faculty Center), UP Diliman.

The Man Asian–informally known as the “Asian Booker”–was established in 2006 and made its first award in 2007 for the best unpublished novel in English or English translation by an Asian.

Filipino fictionist and UP professor Jose Dalisay Jr.’s novel Soledad’s Sister made the shortlist of the inaugural prize, which drew 243 entries from all over Asia.

The deadline for the 2008 Man Asian is March 31, 2008.

Peter Gordon will speak about the prize and on literary publishing in Asia in general. The UPICW is inviting all interested writers, translators, publishers, teachers, and students to attend the lecture-discussion, which will also feature Dr. Dalisay and fellow novelist and columnist Alfred “Krip” Yuson.

Peter Gordon is also a founder and former Director of the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival (held each March in Hong Kong), founder and editor of the Asian Review of Books, and publisher at Chameleon Press. He writes a weekly op-ed column in the Hong Kong daily The Standard and is chairman of the Russian Interest Group at the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

The University of the Philippines Institute of Creating Writing (UP ICW), together with Powerbooks and Read or Die present the second series of Write Or Die: Writers Write lecture workshops (with Maria Isabel Garcia).

The weekend discussions (which began in November 2007) will continue all throughout February 2008 in the various branches of Powerbooks. You might even catch a glimpse of some of the best writers of the Philippines moderating these discussions.

The objective of the workshops is to promote the Gawad Likhaan: The University of the Philippines Centennial Literary Prize.

Here are the focal areas of the workshops:

• Fiction (November 2007-December 2007)
• Non-Fiction (January 2008), and
• Poetry (February 2008)

Maria Isabel Garcia, winner of the 2007 National Book Awards for Essay for her book “Science Solitaire” (Ateneo Press) and acclaimed science columnist of the Philippine Star, kicked-off the Non-Fiction series last January 12, 2008 (Saturday) in Powerbooks Greenbelt from 2PM to 4PM with a discussion on science writing.

Interested in attending these free talks which are open to the public?

Please contact Read Or Die at readordie.ph@gmail.com or visit http://write-or-die.org