Alice Tan Gonzales

Si Alice Tan Gonzales ay ipinanganak na isang Filipina at Intsik. Sa kanilang tahanan ay palaging sinasalita
ang Hiligaynon kung kaya’y hindi kataka-taka na dapat niyang isulat ang kanyang unang maikling kwento
sa Hiligaynon at tuklasin ang kanyang malalim na koneksyon sa wika sa proseso.

Naging isang guro siya sa literature at communication sa Humanities Division, UP Visayas. Siya ay Ph. D.
sa English Studies: Creative Writing sa UP Diliman.

Nagsusulat siya ng binalaybay, drama, at sugilanon sa wikang Hiligaynon.

ALICIA TAN GONZALES Alice Tan Gonzales was born on June 24, 1954 in Bacolod City. She finished AB
English at University of St. La Salle-Bacolod, MA in Literature at Ateneo de Manila University, and Ph.D.
in English Studies at University of the Philippines-Diliman. Currently, she is a full Professor in English and
Literature in UP Visayas, Iloilo. She has received the Cultural Center of the Philippines Literature Grants
four times: Short Story (1990),

Novel (1991), Play (1994), and Children’s Play (1995). She has won the Palanca Awards for Short Story in
Hiligaynon several times: “Isa Ka Pungpong nga Rosas” (A Bunch of Roses, 1997); “Mga Luha para kay
Tatay Jose” (Tears for Tatay Jose, 1997); “Ang Likum sang Isla San Miguel” (The Secret of Isla San Miguel,
1999); “Sa Taguangkan sang Duta” (In the Womb of the Earth, 2002); at “Dawata Anak” (Receive, My

Child, 2008). Some of the plays she had written which were performed onstage were the sarswela

“Pinustahan nga Gugma” (Betted Love) and the musical “Juanita Cruz.” In 2009 her collection of

Hiligaynon short stories Sa Taguangkan sang Duta kag iban pa nga Sugilanon (In the Womb of the Earth
and Other Stories) was published, and in 2015 her binalaybay (poetry) collection Ilongga: Madamo nga
Guya (Ilongga: Her Many Faces) was published.

Ritchie Pagunsan

Early Sol Gadong currently works at the Division of Professional Education, University of the Philippines
Visayas. Early Sol does research in Contextualization, Ethnomathematics, and eLearning in the fields of
Education, Statistics, and Algebra, among others. Her current project is "Mathematical Reasoning Skills
in Algebra."

Iloilo City
Early Sol A. Gadong was born and raised in Bo. Obrero, Iloilo City. She earned her BS in Applied
Mathematics and Master of Education (Mathematics) degrees at the University of the Philippines
Visayas. She has attended a number of writing workshops, including the San Agustin Writers Workshop
in Iloilo City, the Iyas National Writers Workshop in Bacolod City, and the Ateneo National Writers
Workshop in Quezon City. Her poems and short stories have seen print in publications by Balay
Sugidanun, UP Press, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, and Kasingkasing Press. She won 2ndprize in the
2016 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for her short story in Hiligaynon. She is the Vice
President of Hubon Manunulat, a group of West Visayan writers who write in Aklanon, Hiligaynon, and
Kinaray-a. She currently teaches mathematics, statistics, and education courses at UP Visayas.

Early Sol Gadong

By

Melchor F. Cichon

January 18, 2015

I was intrigued with her name: Early Sol.

So I asked her "what’s behind your name?"

She said:

“Regarding my name. Weird names run in our family. My father's name was Ermity, my mother is
Leconvic, my aunt is Solcar. Taking the first syllables of their names, my name was supposed to be
Erlesol. Haha! My mother modified it to be Early Sol, which is still pretty weird.”

Sol was born on June 17, 1983.

Her parents are Ermity G.Gadong, Jr., from Tapaz, Capiz, while her mother is Leconvic A. Gadong from
Hinigaran, Negros Occidental. She is the eldest among four children (1 brother, 2 sisters). None of her
parents are writers.
Her scholastic records show that Sol is indeed a bright student. She was Ist Honorable Mention and
Character awardee when she graduated at Sta. MariaCatholic School (now Ateneo de Iloilo) in 1995. In
1999, she graduated as Salutatorian and a Gerry Roxas Leadership Awardee at UP High School in Iloilo.
In2003, she graduated at the UP Visayas with the degree of BS Applied Mathematics,and in 2013, she
graduated at the same institution with a degree of Master of Education (Mathematics).

She thought she could not be a writer because she had never been the best in her classes,although she
always got good scores in writing classes.

But because she was encouraged by her language teachers, particularly Ms. Aida Rabotazo (primary
school), Prof. Ma, Lourdes Ladrido (secondary school), and Prof. Mila Legislador (tertiary level), to
improve her writing skills, her desire to become a writer was eventually developed.

And so she writes short stories.

She started writing short stories in 2012, when she became a fellow in Fiction at the Ateneo National
Writers Workshop in Metro Manila. She also attended the Iyas Creative Writing Workshop in Bacolod
City that same year. After those workshops, she was challenged to write short stories in Hiligaynon.

Before attending the national creative writing workshops, Sol attended the San Agustin Writers
Workshop in 2009 and the Lamiraw Workshop the following year,

With her background in mathematics, it is but logical that her knowledge in mathematics will be
integrated in her literary works.

This integration of mathematics in her short stories can be found in her short story entitled “Kon Indi
Man Matulugan” published in 2013 in the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF) Aklat ng Bayan. This story
is part of an anthology “Pagbalik sang Babaylan”.
This concept of mathematics in literature is not new. She said that integrating mathematical concepts in
short stories is as old as literature itself.

But I think this concept of integrating mathematical concept in literature is new in Western Visayas
Literature.

While writing short stories for adults, Sol also tried her hands in writing stories for children. And so far
she has been successful. And she has been winning prizes in Kiniray-a short story writing contests. The
latest was her winning entry in the Kiniray-a writing contest sponsored by Dungug Kiniray-a in San Jose
de Buenavista, Antique.

To date she has these accomplishments as a writer both in Kinaray-a and in Hiligaynon:

A short story in Kinaray-a turned into a picture book published by Gen Asenjo's Balay Sugidanun. Peter
Nery published her stories for children and flash fiction in Hiligaynon in two of his anthologies. Dungug
Kinaray-a also included another of her short story for children in their collection. John Iremil Teodoro
included one of her Hiligaynon stories as a part of an anthology published by the Komisyon sa Wikang
Filipino, and another Hiligaynon short story was part of a collection edited by Dr. Leoncio P. Deriada.

Since Sol is still young, she hopes to improve her craft and write better and more.

If she is not indulged in creative writing, she said that she sees a movie whenever she has time. And she
likes dreaming up of new places to travel to and explore. But she has not used her adventure
experiences in any of her stories.

Not yet.

Dr. Jesus Catigan Insilada: A Writing Teacher

By

Melchor F. Cichon

January 3, 2015
Among the contemporary literary people from Western Visayas, Dr. Jesus Insilada is known as a
Hiligaynon poet, a short story writer and a novelist.

And through hard work, he has won two Palanca awards for his Hiligaynon short stories in 2012 and
2013. In 2013, he was an honoree of the Many Faces of the Teacher (Bato Balane Foundation), and in
2014 he was chosen as one of the 2014 Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teachers awardees for the
Secondary level. At present he teaches English at Alcarde Gustilo Memorial National High School in
Calinog, Iloilo.

In addition, Dr. Insilada has published more than 60 short stories, 10 poems in Hiligaynon and Liwayway.
Three of his Hiligaynon novels have been serialized in Hiligaynon magazine. These are Panubok, Ang
Gugma ni Valentina, and Mga Alibangbang sa Handurawan.

Dr. Insilada has a Master of Arts in English and Literature, and a Doctor of Education, major in
Educational Management degrees.

But who is Dr. Jesus Insilada? Let us open some of his windows.

Dr. Insilada, or Jes, among his peers, was born on March 24, 1978 in Calinog, Iloilo. His parents are
Vicente Insilada and Aurelia Catigan, both farmers. He said that not one of his parents has tried writing
literary pieces,although his late grandfather from Escalante, Negros Occidental really had talent in
writing but none of his works was published.

As a young boy, Jes had already showed his scholastic superiority. He was a valedictorian when he
graduated at Alibunan Elementary School, Alibunan, Calinog. He graduated with honors at Calinog
Agricultural and Industrial College-High School Department, and graduated as cum laude at Calinog
Agricultural and Industrial College.

From high school to college, he was a staff member of their school organs, the Farmer’s Choice, and the
Goldern Harvest,respectively.
Then in 2008, he attended his first creative writing workshop at the University of San Agustin. After that
he started sending his works to Hiligaynon magazine where his first published work, a short story,
Salamat Sa Sugilanon, was published. After that workshop, he kept on sending entries to almost all
workshops in the country. However, there are still creative writing workshops which he hopes to attend.

When I asked him on what topic/s he is writing about, he said “Be it poetry or story, I usually write about
the life, triumphs, culture of the people in my place. I’m into culture-based writing. When I write about
my place and my people, I feel I do my share of promoting our culture. By the way, I am a Panay
Bukidnon, a Jalaudnon to be specific.”

Of the many poems, short stories and novels that he has written, he considers his Palanca award
winning works as his masterpieces for they have passed the standards of the judges and he is confident
of their quality.

Since he already has won several awards that only few people have won, I asked him what else he wants
to achieve. His answer is simple:

“I want to be remembered as a teacher who also writes. I wish to continue what I have started. It has
been my advocacy to write about the beauty and the uniqueness of my culture. I wish to continue
highlighting my culture in the lessons and in my writings.”

And when I asked him what he thinks of the contemporary Western Visayas literature in terms of their
strengths and weaknesses, he said,thus: “Western Visayas literature is flourishing. Writers, both seniors
and beginners, are active in propagating their crafts. Young writers are fortunate to have senior writers
in their side ready to assist and give them direction. The initiative to have venues for old and young
writers to work together serves its purpose. It is giving good results in terms of publications and new
books.”

Jes must have been thinking of the various literary groups in Western Visayas. In Aklan, we have the
Akeanon Literary Circle. In Antique,we have the Dungug Kinaray-a and Balay Sugidanon; while in Iloilo,
we have the Hubon Manunulat and the Sumakwelan. And The Peter Solis Nery Foundation.
All these literary groups have been doing their best to help develop their respective literature. The
Kinaray-a group has been conducting short story and poetry contests and have published several books.
The Akeanon group has also published anthologies of their literary outputs. The Hiligaynon writers have
also conducted poetry and short story contests and have published their works too.These efforts will
surely fortify Western Visayas literature to the national literary scene.

Jes hopes that Western Visayas writers will continue this good relationship. He further hopes that the
connection between our writers from and outside the academe be strengthened. They need to come to
terms, to sit down and have discussion on how to standardize like for example our

orthography. We still don’t have spelling standards in Hiligaynon, he emphasized.

And that’s also true for Kinaray-a and Akeanon languages.

Peter Solis Nery

(born 6 January 1969) is an award-winning Filipino poet, fictionist, and author. Writing in his native
Hiligaynon language, he has won such prestigious literary contests as the Carlos Palanca Memorial
Awards for Literature, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Literary Grant, and the All-Western
Visayas Literary Contest of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). He was inducted
into the Palanca Awards Hall of Fame in 2012.

Diversifying into English and Filipino, he has authored over 20 books, and wrote screenplays that won
the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize of 1998, the 1998 Film Development Foundation of the
Philippines’ Screenwriting Contest, the 2001 Cinemanila International Film Festival Scriptwriting
Competition, and the 2012 Film Development Council of the Philippines’ First Sineng Pambansa National
Film Competition. He wrote and edited wide circulation newspapers in Iloilo City before becoming a
nurse in the United States.

As a screen actor, Peter briefly appears in Tikoy Aguiluz’s film on cybersex, www.XXX.com (Maverick
Films, 2003), of which he was also the Assistant Director. He also has a cameo performance in Gugma sa
Panahon sang Bakunawa (Graydonnery Artists and DreamWings Productions, 2012), the first full-length
feature film that he wrote, directed, and produced.

Peter worked as an orthopedic nurse in Los Angeles, California for seven years before moving to
Reisterstown, Maryland, where he now lives. He continues to write in English and Hiligaynon.
Early life and education

Peter was born and raised in the coastal town of Dumangas, Iloilo on the island of Panay in central
Philippines. The eldest son of the late Cecilino Divinagracia Nery, and the former Thelma Ramirez Solis,
both public school teachers, he has four siblings: Irene Cecile (now Irene Ramos), Antonio, Rocky, and
Maricel (now Maricel Centeno).

Peter attended primary school at the Dumangas Central Elementary School, and completed his
secondary education at the Dumangas Polytechnic College (now Iloilo State College of Fisheries), where
he was consistently first honor from grade one until his high school graduation. He finished his Bachelor
of Science in Biological Sciences at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, where he was named
Most Outstanding Student (1989), and Most Outstanding Graduate of 1990. He also received the
President’s Award of Merit as Outstanding Student in his graduation year.

While attending public school, Peter honed his talent for writing. He was editor of his school publications
from elementary to college, and multi-awarded in the journalistic genre of news writing, feature writing,
editorial writing, and editorial cartooning. Under his editorship, he led the UPV college publication
Pagbutlak to become the region’s best at the 1989 College Press Awards.

Peter also attended the SVD Christ the King Mission Seminary in Quezon City where he took an Associate
in Philosophy degree in 1992-1993. In 2004, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from
the West Negros College (now West Negros University) in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

Writing career

After the People’s Power EDSA Revolution of 1986, Peter found himself on the crest of a new wave in
Philippine literature. Post-EDSA, there was a resurgence of interest in regional writing. The
administration of President Cory Aquino also declared a Decade of Nationalism. At UP, Peter was lucky
to meet Leoncio Deriada who encouraged him to write in the Hiligaynon.

Peter won his first national award in writing from the CCP for his poetry in Hiligaynon, Mga Ambahanon
kag Pangamuyo sang Bata nga Nalimtan sa Wayang [Songs and Prayers of a Child Forgotten in the Fields]
in 1992.
For his performance poetry Si Eva, si Delilah, si Ruth, kag ang Alput [Eva, Delilah, Ruth, and the
Prostitute] at the Premio Operiano Italia, he was crowned Hari sang Binalaybay [King of Hiligaynon
Poetry] in 1993, a title he held until 1998.

Out of his student activism days at the university (He espoused the issues of the US military bases,
Iloilo’s street children, and ecological awareness.), he wrote his first book, I Flew a Kite for Pepe. He
admits, “I cringe now at my boldness to call it poetry then, but I always thought that the book has a big
heart. I still cry when I read it.”

I Flew a Kite for Pepe was published by New Day Publishers in 1993. It was followed by his earth song
and hymn to the planet, First Few Notes of a Green Symphony (1994).

When Gloria F. Rodriguez (1997 Manila Critics’ Circle Lifetime Achievement Awardee for Publishing)
retired from New Day in 1993, she established her own publishing house, Giraffe Books. Peter was
among the first authors she published; the book was First Few Notes of a Green Symphony, which
contained some translations and reworking of poems from his 1992 CCP Literature Grant.

While working as a religious missionary in Macau, Peter became more introspective and started his
memoirs. The Essential Thoughts of a Purple Cat was published by Giraffe Books in 1996; Moon River,
Butterflies, and Me by New Day in 1997; and My Life as a Hermit again by Giraffe in 1998.

In 1995, he won the NCCA Western Visayas Poetry Competition for his collection Umanhon nga Gugma
[Love of the Rural Folks]. Some of the poems were translated, reworked, and included in his provocative
collection, Rated R (Giraffe Books, 1997).

Peter Published four titles in 1997: the playful poetry collection Shy Evocations of Childhood and other
Poems that Came under Hypnosis, and Rated R for Giraffe; Shorts, a collection of haiku-like poems, and
the memoir Moon River, Butterflies, and Me for New Day.

1998 was a big year for Peter’s writing career. Aside from publishing the memoir My Life as a Hermit,
and the collection of lyric poems Fireflies for a Yuppie (both for Giraffe Books), Peter won his first
Palanca gold medal for his magical realist Hiligaynon short story Lirio, about a deaf-mute who is a victim
of marital rape. The Palanca is considered as the Philippine equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize, a standard
by which all Filipino writers are measured.

Furthermore, his first screenplay, Buyong, about the Katipunero revolutionary from Aklan won big as a
third prize winner in the screenplay category of the Centennial Literary Prize, the biggest literary prize in
the history of the Philippines. The Centennial Literary Prize awarded P1 Million Pesos to first prize
winners, and half a million for third prize.
With the money he won, Peter visited the United States. Later that year, his second screenplay, Tayo na
sa Buwan [Let’s Go to the Moon], won an honorable mention at the Film Development Foundation of
the Philippines.

Upon his return to the Philippines in 1999, Peter was offered a job as a newspaper columnist and
entertainment editor of The News Today, which was ultimately launched in 2000. With the publisher’s
assurance that he would be given blanket authority over the pages that he edited, Peter started a sexy
ego-tripping writing stance that was later described as “phenomenal” and “unprecendented in Ilonggo
journalism.”

Writing with an edge, and with a bold attitude adapted from the liberal newspapers and magazines in
the United States, Peter became a newspaper icon, and was treated as a celebrity writer.

Another Palanca win for his sci-fi story Ang Pangayaw [The Stranger] in 2000 solidified his position and
quenched the question whether he could write “properly.”

Peter started his own DreamWings Publishing, and produced A Loneliness Greater than Love (2000), and
exploration of homoerotic themes; and Fantasia (2000), a collection of his award-winning fiction. In
2001, DreamWings published Rain as Gentle as Tears, a sequel to his 1997 Shorts collection; and The
Prince of Ngoyngoy [The Prince of Sob], a collection of lyric poems in Hiligaynon that established Peter
as the Ilonggo epitome of sob poetry.

Celebrity status at hand, Peter left The News Today in 2003 for The Guardian (now The Daily Guardian)
to reprise his role as premier agent provocateur of Iloilo City, and the whole Western Visayas. His
columns, teetering between Carrie Bradshaw’s relationship meditations in Sex and the City, and bawdier
versions of the funny essays of David Sedaris, have become much anticipated and widely followed by
readers from all walks of life.

In 2003, DreamWings published Pierre: The Magazine of Peter Solis Nery. It delivered three monthly
issues.
Finally, in 2005, Peter moved to Panay News, Western Visayas’ oldest and most widely circulated
newspaper. By that time, he was already licensed to practice nursing in the Philippines. When the
opportunity came in 2006, he went to the United States, took the US nursing licensure exam, passed,
found a hospital employer, and stayed to work.

For 100 days in 2005, Peter endeavored to write the 100 Erotic Sonnets in Hiligaynon. He called it
Kakunyag [Thrill]. It was launched in a concert, probably the biggest literary event of the 2006 National
Arts Month in Iloilo, and was serialized in the newspaper Hublas nga Kamatuoran [The Naked Truth]
starting March 2006.

Peter won another Palanca in 2006 for his Hiligaynon psycho-thriller short story Ang Kapid [The Twins].
The win provided him further encouragement to persevere in writing Hiligaynon.

In 2007, Peter won his second Palanca gold for his historical Hiligaynon short story Candido, about the
anting-anting [amulets] of the revolutionary Candido Iban. The following year, he won his third Palanca
gold for his full-length play in English, The Passion of Jovita Fuentes (published by New Day in 2009),
about the tragic love affair of the first Filipino international opera diva and first female National Artist in
Music. Peter also completed translation of his 100 erotic sonnets in Hiligaynon into English in 2008.

In 2011, Peter won his fourth Palanca gold for his Hiligaynon short story, Donato Bugtot, about a
despised twin brother who donated a kidney to his handsome but arrogant twin. He also posted two
second prizes at the Palanca that year for categories in English: poetry for children and full-length play.

Continuing his winning streak, he won his fifth gold and was elevated to the Palanca Awards Hall of
Fame for his Punctuation, a collection of Poetry for Children in English, in 2012. In the same year, he also
won for his Hiligaynon screenplay Gugma sa Panahon sang Bakunawa at the FDCP First Sineng Pambansa
National Competition. The win awarded him money with which he made the film from his own script.
The film premiered at the Sineng Pambansa Film Festival in July 2012, and has been shown in festival
circuits in the Philippines, and abroad.

Peter won his sixth Palanca gold in 2013 for his Hiligaynon short story, Si Padre Olan kag ang Dios, about
a priest, his faith, church politics, and the problem of drought.
Other Careers

While in college, Peter worked part-time as Editor of Voices and Tingog sang Kabataan for Stop
Trafficking of Pilipinos (STOP) Foundation in Iloilo City. He was also the Project Officer for the
Streetchildren Program.

In 1991, he attended the seminary, and two years later, went on a religious mission in Macau. In a
ministry of accompaniment to the Filipino migrant workers in Macau and Hong Kong, Peter held a
teaching job at the Scared Heart Canossian College, in addition to organizing prayer communities and
church choirs. At the Canossian College, he taught secondary school English Grammar, Literature, and
Biology.

Upon his repatriation in 1995, Peter became a recluse and wrote many of his published work. He came
out of his self-imposed isolation in 1996, and taught high school English, World Literature, and Christian
Living at Santa Maria Catholic School (now Ateneo de Iloilo). In 1997, he taught Philosophy at the
University of the Philippines.

While teaching, Peter directed and acted in many school productions. He played Biff Loman in Santa
Maria’s production of Death of a Salesman, and directed Edmond Rostand’s The Romancers for the
senior class of the same school. For the Intermedius at UPV, he directed and acted in Pitik-Bulag sa
Buwan ng Pebrero.

Peter did stand-up comedy and performed regularly at the now defunct Graciano Bar and grill in Jaro,
Iloilo City from 1997 until his departure for the US in 1998. Upon his return to Iloilo in 1999, he
performed at arranged capacities in such varied venues as Amigo Terrace Hotel, Hafa Adai Café, Sisa Bar,
Cicada Bar, Zuba, Hite, and Riverside Bar, among many others.

In his hometown of Dumangas, Peter is a reputable choreographer, director, and performer. He played
Jesus Christ in Lenten and Easter celebrations, and directed a most lavish coronation pageant for the
millennium town fiesta.

Aside from playing Gary Estrada’s sidekick in the film that launched the movie career of FHM
(Philippines) cover girl Juliana Palermo, Tikoy Aguiluz’s www.xxx.com (Maverick Films, 2003), Peter was
also the film’s Assistant Director. In addition, Peter has acted and collaborated in several other
independent films locally in the Philippines, and abroad.

Nursing Career

While investigating the phenomenon of doctors getting into nursing schools, Peter enrolled in Nursing as
he continued to write for the newspaper. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Nursing in October
2004, and became a Registered Nurse in the Philippines in February 2005. He went to the United States
in February 2006, and became a Registered Nurse in California in May of the same year. He started
working as an orthopedic nurse in downtown Los Angeles in 2007.

In October 2008, Peter was given the Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses by the White Memorial
Medical Center and the DAISY Foundation, a foundation for the elimination of Diseases Attacking the
Immune System in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Peter was honored for his extraordinary care,
compassion, and sensitivity to the needs of his patients and their families. He was presented a unique
hand-carved Shona (a Zimbabwe tribe) stone sculpture entitled A Healer’s Touch; proceeds from the
purchase of the sculpture helped the artists’ families in Zimbabwe.

Champion of Hiligaynon

Right after his induction to the Palanca Awards Hall of Fame, Peter established The Peter Solis Nery
Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. in September 2012. The Foundation, which aims
to promote, preserve, and propagate Hiligaynon literature, and Filipino art and culture, through
research, publications, productions, education, and cultural dissemination, was incorporated by the
Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission on November 5, 2012.

In 2013, the Foundation launched the literary contest, Peter’s Prize, starting with categories for Very,
Very Short Story, and Love Poetry. Following their success, categories for Children’s Stories, Poetry for
Children, and The Saddest Love Story Ever Told were opened in 2014.
In addition, the Foundation also went on to publish books of the new Hiligaynon writings collected from
the Peter’s Prize contests. While editing the anthologies, Peter clarified and revolutionized the
Hiligaynon language for the globally aware generation to accommodate concepts, ideas, and advances in
cybercommunications and global industrialization. He advocated the new Hiligaynon orthography
upgrading the alphabet from 20 to 28 letters in the tradition of the new Filipino alphabet established in
1987. He also formally rejected the use of diacritics or stress marks, a growing trend already, if the 48
authors from Peter’s Prize are to be believed (only one out of the 48 used stress marks). His effort is
called The Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014, and can be seen in five or six books published by his
Foundation on 2014 alone.

Peter is an independent contractor and oral proficiency interviewer in Hiligaynon accredited by the
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) since January 2013. Aside from winning
six Palanca awards, four of them gold medals, for his Hiligaynon short stories, he also has four previous
books in Hiligaynon before his so-called Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014: Fantasia (2000), The Prince of
Ngoyngoy (2001), Kakunyag (2012), and Stories in Mellifluous Language: Hiligaynon Short Stories (2012).

As a primary and secondary producer, being a prolific writer and publisher of Hiligaynon literature, he is
positive that his Hiligaynon Revolution will gain ground before long. After all, he says, orthography is
ultimately controlled by those who write, and especially those who publish, literature in the language.

Peter is also at work for the definitive Hiligaynon dictionary for this, and the future generations.

Alain Russ Dimzon is a Filipino poet, fictionist and lyricist. He was born on October 31, 1963 in Jaro, Iloilo
City, Philippines. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a public school teacher. He finished his
Bachelor in Local Government Administration Major in Public safety and Law Enforcement at the Iloilo
State College of Fisheries (ISCOF) and his Master in Public Administration at the Guimaras State College
(GSC).

Alain Russ Dimzon

Add a Photo

Born

October 31, 1963 (age 57)

Nationality

Filipino

Citizenship

Philippines

Education

Bachelor in Local Government Administration

Master in Public Administration

Alma mater

Iloilo State College of Fisheries

Guimaras State College

Occupation

Poet

Fictionist

Lyricist

Awards

Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards

Dimzon’s earliest works were poems in English. These got published by reputable national magazines,
journals and anthologies such as Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic, National Midweek, Sunday
Inquirer of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Panorama of the Manila Bulletin, Ani and CCP Literary
Yearbook both of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Mantala and Patubas of the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts, Native Words, Native Roots of the Mindanao State University, In
Time Passing, There are Things of the Society of St. Paul, Under the Storm – International Movie and Arts
Festival. His poem A Rain Scene won the first prize in the Home Life Poetry contest in 1999.

After he decided to shift to writing in Hiligaynon, his native language, he became the first fellow in
Hiligaynon Poetry of the UP National Writers’ Workshop in 1999. He was awarded the Gawad Emmanuel
Lacaba (Best new Writer in Hiligaynon) by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in
2000. He was recipient of the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Hiligaynon Poetry awarded by
the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) in 2018.

His first full-blown book manuscript Ang Manunulat kag ang Pendulum (the Writer and the Pendulum),
Hiligaynon poems with Englsih translation, (University of San Agustin Publishing House. Iloilo City,
Philippines: 2008) Template:Isbn won the Fray Luis de Leon Creative Writing Institute 2006 competitive
creative writing grant.

His other awards in Hiligaynon poetry were a Pasidungog (An Award of Merit) for a poem Tingulan kag
Tig-ilinit given by Hiligaynon Magasin in 1997 and a Karangalan Banggit (Honorable Mention) for his
batch of poems entitled Ang Bakunawa kag Iban pa nga mga Binalaybay given by the Komisyon sa
Wikang Filipino (KWF) in 2007.

On January 22, 2019, President Rodrigo duterte appointed Dimzon as Commissioner for Hiligaynon at
the Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino).

Dimzon’s fiction have won prizes from the Carlos Palanca Memorial awards for Literature: Binukot ,
Third Place (2012) and Bahal nga Tuba, Third Place (2016).

He wrote the lyrics for an avant-garde song for a choral piece in A capella, Ang Paghabyog Sang
Pendulum (Thrusting the Pendulum), composed by renowned Filipino musicologist Dr. Christine Muyco,
which was given by the Asian composer’s League a world premiere in Chinese Taipei. In 2011.

Dimzon was given the opportunity to serve as artist-in-residence, consultant and chairperson for
Creative Writing at the Special Program for the Arts (now School for the Arts) of the Iloilo National High
School, the first high school for the arts outside Luzon from 2003 to 2008.

He was chairperson of the Arts Council of Iloilo Commjittee on Literary Arts from 1999 to 2001. He was
founding chairman of Hubon Manunulat, a contemporary language-literature organization base at the
University of the Philippines in the Visayas. He is a member of the Philippine Center for (Poets, essayists,
Novelists and Playwrights) Inte
Si Gil Salanio Montinola, 27 anyos, sangka manunudlo sa elementarya sa pampubliko nga buluthuan sa
Distrito kang Mina sa Mina, Iloilo. Nakaentra tana sa 9th IYAS Creative Writing Workshop 2009, 8th
SanAg Writers Workshop 2010, kag 18th Iligan National Writers.

Norman Tagudinay Darap, 22 anyos, taga-Barangay Cadabdab, Tubungan, Iloilo kag nagtapos kang kurso
ng Nursing sa University of San Agustin, Iloilo City. Nangin writing fellow sa 2011 IYAS National Writers
Workshop sa University of St. La Salle, Bacolod City.