The first Filipino Reader Conference took place last Wednesday at the SMX, Mall of Asia, and it was a resounding success. For those who weren’t able to attend in-person, or for attendees who want to relive the event, Charles Tan has uploaded audio recordings of the talks and panels. You can find them here. Here’s a list of the speakers/panelists and participants, with links to their blogs/sites as well: Keynote Speech: No Line on the Horizon: The Merging of Readers and Writers through Social Media by Carljoe Javier Putting Up and Running a Book Club—For the Fun of It! by Gege Sugue, Doni A. Oliveros, and Tata Francisco The Why and How of Book Blogging by Tarie Sabido (Blog 1, Blog 2), Charles Tan, Chachic Fernandez, Aldrin Calimlim, and Sasha Martinez.
The voting period for the 2011 Komikon Awards, which has been rolling out nominations for the past few weeks, has officially begun and will last for one month, terminating on October 15, 2011. You can click here for instruction on how to register/vote, and go here for the actual casting of your virtual ballots. Here are the links to the categories and their respective nominees: BEST FILIPINO INTERNATIONAL ARTIST BEST COMIC: Graphic Novel /Anthology BEST COMIC: Series BEST COMIC: Comic Strip Compilation BEST COMIC CREATOR BEST COVER BEST CARTOONIST GRASSROOT AWARD BEST WEBCOMIC KOMIKS CHARACTER BEST COMICS SCENE
As part of an event to promote the upcoming Filipino Reader Conference, I’ll be participating (or trying to) in Filipino Fridays, where Filipino readers discuss a weekly topic. For this week, I’m going to talk a bit about my favorite books by Filipino authors. Well, my biases are certainly going to be evident in this post. As may be obvious to visitors of the site, I make it a point to actively seek out Filipino-created works of science fiction and fantasy (although I don’t always have time to read them). Luckily, there’s a lot more of that available now than when I was growing up. (But there’s always room for more!) Most prose genre works by Filipinos are short stories, so my favorite books are really collections with many different authors: there are the regular publications such as the annual Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology (which has been released every year since 2006), and the Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, which has recently gone online; a few of the stand-alone anthologies I’ve really enjoyed are “A Time for Dragons” (edited by Vincent Simbulan), “The Farthest Shore” from Estranghero Press, “Waking the Dead” by Yvette Tan, and the two reprint collections “The Philippine Speculative Fiction Sampler” (edited by Mia Tijam and Charles Tan) and the “Best of Philippine Speculative Fiction 2009”. Of course, some of my favorite stories aren’t found in anthologies but magazines (such as “Teaching a Pink Elephant to Ski” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz), and I’m glad we have people like Charles who bring such stories to our attention. While realist works still dominate the prose scene, the opposite holds true in the field of comics. Amongst the many contenders, my favorites include: The “Trese” series (Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo); “By Moon Alone” (Hai Ibardolaza); “The Mythology Class” by Arnold Arre; “Askals” (Dodo Dayao and Bong Leal); “Ninja Girl Ko” (Marco Dimaano and Kriss Sison); “Pericos Tao” (Andrew Drilon); “Tabi Po” (Mervin Malonzo). Special mention should also be made of the children’s comic book “Private Iris” (Jaime Bautista and Arnold Arre). If you haven’t read most of these stories yet, it’s never too late to start. Welcome to the world of the Philippine Fantastic :)
As part of an event to promote the upcoming Filipino Reader Conference, I’ll be participating (or trying to) in Filipino Fridays, where Filipino readers discuss a weekly topic. For this week, I’m going to talk a bit about advantages and disadvantages to being a reader in the Philippines. I can only speak as to the advantages and disadvantages to being a reader in Metro Manila, and what answers I give should be read with the awareness that there will likely be more disadvantages and less advantages the farther you get from a major metropolis. There are quite a few good things about being a reader in the Philippines today. Book prices (prose and non-fiction, but not comics) are generally lower than other countries (and we have some excellent, if chaotic, second-hand bookstores), and speaking as someone who lived in the days of the true National Book Store monopoly, the selection of titles is very good. Hell, sometimes we even get big releases before the U.S. does (hello, “Ghost Story”). Another benefit that many people take for granted is that we also have the best selection of Philippine-published books in the world. That’s something that I have a renewed appreciation of, having just met Rochita Loenen-Ruiz the other day, an amazing Filipino spec fic writer who is based in the Netherlands, and who spent a lot of time during her visit home acquiring research materials for her stories. (To see how she applies this research, and her Ifugao background, to her stories, here’s an example of her work: “Hi Bugan ya Hi Kinggawan.” She also has a story in “our upcoming anthology, Alternative Alamat”) For someone who loves reading about Philippine history and komiks, it’s hard to imagine a better place to be. Can you imagine how hard it would be to get the latest Philippine Speculative Fiction anthology, or Trese case, abroad? As for disadvantages, there are quite a few, which I’m always happy to name: First, let’s go with the still unresolved book tax issue; our lack of public libraries (and the lack of support given to the libraries that do exist); the need to have a U.S. address to buy Kindle books at their actual prices (or at all); a lack of conventions that prominently feature and discuss prose fiction; few specialty/genre-focused bookstores; few author-reader events (readings, book tours, panels); lack of a functioning Espresso Book Machine (okay the last is true for almost everywhere in the world, but a boy can dream, can’t he?). I have a lot on my “cons” list, not because I’m utterly dissatisfied with the way things are, but because reading is something I care deeply about, and so I’m always aware of the problems because I want the local situation to get better—especially now that I have a child. It’s good to be a reader in the Philippines (especially now with the active book communities, online and off)—but we can, and should, make it better.
As part of an event to promote the upcoming Filipino Reader Conference, I’ll be participating (or trying to) in Filipino Fridays, where Filipino readers discuss a weekly topic. For this week, I’m going to talk a bit about how I became a reader. It’s hard to believe that I haven’t always been a reader, that I didn’t spring forth from the womb with my nose buried in a dog-eared paperback. I know that I read voraciously even before I self-identified as a “reader”: I was an only child, and there were no 24-hour cartoon channels back then, so I read whatever I could get my hands on, whether it be a priest’s memoir of his time in detention, or a parenting book that outlined the many ways children manipulate their parents (which I found very educational, for all the wrong reasons). At the time, I wasn’t reading “for pleasure” as much as I was reading simply to have something to do. I discovered comics soon after (and probably met my future editor Vincent Simbulan for the first time at the Goldcrest branch of Comic Quest), but for a long, comics made me feel like a second class citizen. Every issue seemed to be referring to events in some previous issue published before I was born (and there was no Internet to fill in the blanks—“See Avengers issue True Believer!” doesn’t really fill any expository gaps). But I remember the first genre novel I ever read, because that was when I became a reader. It was “The Sleeping Dragon” by the late Joel Rosenberg, and while it was probably not age appropriate for me at the time (the book had sex, violence, and curse words, and I was probably less than ten years old), it was eminently suited to introducing me to what would become a lifelong passion. After all, it was a story about a group of people pulled into an alternate world of fantasy. I devoured the book, then every other book in that series, embraced genre fiction and never looked back. Maria Tatar uses the term “Enchanted Hunter” (as opposed to what she sees as the more negative “book-worm”) to describe avid readers, those who “fall under the spell of words, but also remain hunters, active seekers of those glittering portals to forbidden and enchanting lands.” (p.27, “Enchanted Hunters: the power of stories in childhood.”) I like that term, because it jives with my experience—I certainly didn’t feel passive because I loved to read, and my bookstore raids certainly shared many similarities with a hunt, including the urge to bring something home to feed my hunger, even if I didn’t find exactly what I was looking for. And I did hunger for books—I still do—but I only equate books with food insofar as books are something that I need. Unlike food, I don’t believe you can ever read too many books—I don’t even think you can ever say that you’ve read “enough” books. Each book is like a single step: no matter how many I’ve already taken, the next one will always move me farther ahead.
The third set of stories for PGS Online, this batch co-edited by Dean Alfar, has begun to roll out, kicking off with “Fragrant Blood” by Elyss Punsalan of Pakinggan Pilipinas. Expect stories from Alexander Osias, Vincent Simbulan, and Dean himself in the coming weeks.
As part of an event to promote the upcoming Filipino Reader Conference, I’ll be participating (or trying to) in Filipino Fridays, where Filipino readers discuss a weekly topic. For this week, I’m going to talk a bit about who I am as a reader. People talk all the time about “literary snobs”, those who read only literary fiction and look down on anything else, particularly genre fiction. For the longest time, I was their polar opposite, and true genre snob who simply didn’t see the point in a book that dealt solely with the possible, much less than actual. I went after the longest, most intricately detailed, science fiction and fantasy books I could find, cutting my teeth on every lengthy saga that graced National Book Store shelves: The Guardians of the Flame; Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn; The Belgariad-Mallorean; The Farseer Trilogy; The Elenium-Tamuli; Shannara; Thomas Covenant; Landover; The Saga of Recluce; The Ender-verse; The Homecoming Saga; Xanth; The Star Wars Expanded Universe; The Wheel of Time… I could go on, but then it might not be “Filipino Friday” by the time I’m done. I still enjoy the occasional hefty fantasy, but my tastes have expanded quite a bit. I now admit that you can create a riveting story without the presence of a single wizard (although I’d still rather read a Dresden Files novel than a Man Booker Awardee, unless it was written by Michael Chabon), particularly in the field of YA, where the fantasy instead takes the form of, for me at least, having that degree of self-possession as a teen. (Favorite authors: John Green; Richard Cormier; Cynthia Voigt) Of course, when you combine YA and genre, all the better. (Favorite authors: Philip Reeve; Cory Doctorow; Scott Westerfeld). I still love traditional science fiction and fantasy, but I love it more when it’s in a subgenre that didn’t saturate my youth, like the caper-fantasy (Scott Lynch), modern urban fantasy (Jim Butcher, Harry Connolly), or steampunk (see Reeve and Westerfeld). Comics and manga still make up a large portion of my reading diet, but I tend to focus more on the works that have a definite ending in mind (sorry super-folks)… oh, and Yotsuba&!, which should never, ever end. I also grew to enjoy the virtuoso technique and imaginative breadth of short stories, so I’ve really gotten into collecting themed anthologies (superhero, steampunk, and of course, most anything with a focus on Philippine speculative fiction). I love non-fiction books too: those that untangle complicated issues or illuminate unknown history (particularly Philippine history/mythology); those that show me the beautiful unity of science (“The Canon”, many books from Clifford Pickover); those that provide insight into the genre books I know and love. As for best (fiction) books of the year, so far? “Child of Fire” by Harry Connolly, “Hopeless Savages: Greatest Hits” by Jen Van Meter, “Dash and Lilly’s Book of Dares” by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, “Little Star” by Andi Watson, “Cross Game (vol. 1)” by Mitsuru Adachi.
Sometimes, the most informative part of my work day comes from simply passing through the lobby (one of them) of the House of Representatives. Groups take advantage of that high traffic space to set up exhibits that aim to raise awareness about various issues. It’s not always as exciting as Philippine-made robot overlords, but it’s always educational, and sometimes even something related to Rocket Kapre. Last Tuesday was International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, and here in the Philippines, it’s the start of a 3-month Indigenous Peoples Solidarity campaign. Awareness of the state and condition of indigenous people is of particular importance to us in the Philippines, since our archipelago is home to 110 ethnolinguistic groups, and 14 million indigenous peoples (accounting for around 16% of our population). [caption id=”” align=”aligncenter” width=”504” caption=”Photo-standees of Evacuees in Surigao del Sur”][/caption] Despite constituting a significant percent of our population, indigenous people are some of the most marginalized sectors of our society, to a large extent because they are almost invisible to people in the power centers of the country. (Not coincidentally, a majority of these communities are found in Mindanao.) It’s hard to raise awareness about our indigenous people, partly because we have so many different and diverse communities (and we all know that the stories that make the news are usually those most susceptible to simplification/generalization), but it would be great if over the next few months we could try to learn a bit more about the problems that face the communities, or about the people themselves—especially their culture, and the need to preserve the same. The very diversity that makes it difficult to treat our indigenous people as a homogenized whole is also what gives our country such a rich and diverse culture of myth and folklore. Whereas some countries are limited to one dominant mythic tradition, by “Philippine Mythology” we’re really talking about dozens of traditions. In the past (and in the future) I’ve tried to use Rocket Kapre to shed some light on these grand old tales, and I thought I’d use this post to review some of that content: The Myth List Philippine Pantheons Ateneo’s Philippine Epics and Ballads Archive is Now Online “Songs of Memory” Epics Conference: Video Hub And, of course, keep your eyes peeled for the Alternative Alamat anthology, launching later this year. [Slider image from quezon.ph]
Flipside Digital Content, the Philippine company responsible for publishing books such as Carljoe Javier’s “Geek Tragedies” and—through their Flipside Komix imprint—komiks titles such as Kubori Kikiam, Tabi Po and The Long Weekend, will be holding a free Webinar on Ebook Publishing for those who want to learn more about the business (or, to be more specific, to learn more about how Flipside conducts its business, for those who may be interested in publishing with them) at 10:00 pm tomorrow, July 28. The speaker will be Anthony de Luna, Flipside CEO, and he’ll talk about the process of getting your manuscript ready for digital publishing, and an overview of Flipside’s operations. I’ve heard good things about Flipside from its authors, so prose writers and comics creators may want to hear what the company has to say. If so, be sure to register at the webinar site, or head there anyway to view the video overview of the webinar. Again, it’s free, and the lecture should only take thirty minutes, so it’s worth a shot.
Pakinggan Pilipinas, which recently celebrated its first birthday, continues to place Philippine stories on the podfiction map. For July, they’ve released an audio rendition of “New Toy” by Joseph Anthony Montecillo, which was published in Philippine Speculative Fiction volume V. Joseph is a shining example that it is never too late to become a writer [/sarcasm]. The youngest contributor in PSFv (and PSFVI as well), “New Toy” is a horror story that, like some of the most effective stories in that genre, chills because at some level, it could happen… and maybe already has, somewhere in the world. The story is narrated by copywriter and bookworm J.T. Tirona.
