This week, our editors report on the state of regional, multilingual literature from the Philippines, the Feria internacional del libro de Nueva York, and the Frankfurt Book Fair and its presentation of Bulgarian writing. Read on to find out more!
Alton Melvar M Dapanas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the Philippines
Panel discussions on publishing and writing served as pre-workshop events to the forthcoming Cordillera Creative Writing Workshop (CCWW). Dubbed Hobwal, book talks were co-presented by indie presses Milflores Publishing, Baguio Writers Group, and multilingual children’s book publisher Aklat Alamid. Ryan Guinaran, Dumay Solinggay, Richard Kinnud, and Sherma Benosa, writers working in Ibaloy, Kankanaey, Ifugao, and Ilokano respectively, spotlighted the panel on writing in the mother tongue. Last year’s workshop instalment featured panelists like Genevieve L Asenjo, International Writing Programme alumna and De La Salle University-MFA Creative Writing program faculty, known for her writings in/translation from the Kinaray-a and Hiligaynon. Other discussions centred on pandemic writings, Baguio City’s literary cartography, and climate fiction.
The University of the Philippines-Baguio’s College of Arts & Communication, and Cordillera Studies Center grant CCWW fellowships to emerging poets, fictionists, and essayists writing in 15 northern Luzon languages—from Bontoc to Ivatan, Kalinga to Gaddang, and major languages Kapampangan, Ilokano, Pangasinan, Filipino, and English. In a country where national writing workshops, awards, prizes, and festivals put premium to English and Filipino, so-called regional endeavours like the CCWW have epitomised what it means to be multilingual, thus sincerely national.
In other news, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) [Commission on Filipino Languages], have banned books deemed “subversive, anti-Duterte, and anti-Marcos”, including prose collection Kalatas: Mga Kuwentong Bayan at Kuwentong Buhay by Creative Writing professor Rommel B Rodriguez, and Tawid-diwa sa Pananangisag ni Bienvenido Lumbera—Dexter B Cayanes’ critical study on National Artist for Literature Lumbera’s œuvre. Book-length collection of plays by Philippine Educational Theatre Association resident playwright Malou Jacob (Teatro Politikal Dos), writer-translator Don Pagusara (May Hadlang ang Umaga), and essayist-fictionist Reuel Molina Aguila (Labas: Mga Palabas sa Labas ng Sentro) are also listed in this book purge. The books of Jacob, Pagusara, and Rodriguez were published last April—by KWF, no less.
The Book Development Association of the Philippines castigated the act, reminding KWF’s mandate of being “a prime defender of expression.” Over on CNN Philippines, Pagusara, a Martial Law political prisoner, expressed: “More than surprised is dismayed, disgust[ed], disappoint[ed].” The Commission on Human Rights has also issued a statement.
Attacks against constitutional freedoms are nothing new. In mid-2020, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) ordered the shutdown (and the Duterte-controlled Congress denied the franchise renewal) of ABS-CBN, the country’s largest media conglomerate, leaving 11,000 employees jobless and millions of Filipinos without a credible, nationwide news source. Strings of lawsuits had been filed against Maria Ressa, Rappler.com’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder. NTC also blocked alternative news websites Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly. All four media outlets are critical of the Duterte-Marcos regimes. In 2021, the Commission on Higher Education in Cordillera ordered the “regionwide removal of subversive materials both in the libraries and online platforms.”
September 21 marked the fiftieth anniversary of late kleptocrat-dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr.’s declaration of Martial Law, under which countless activists, writers, artists, and students were killed, tortured, and disappeared.
Alan Mendoza Sosa, Editor-at-Large, reporting from the US
In this last quarter of 2022, New York City has been hosting exciting literary and cultural events for Hispanophone communities. Among them was the fourth edition of the Feria internacional del libro de Nueva York, which took place between October 6 and 9. Sponsored by different local and international institutions such as The New York Public Library and Instituto Cervantes, this book fair brought together acclaimed writers from around the globe, many being seasoned authors who have also appeared in Asymptote—such as Carmen Boullosa and Yuri Herrera, who respectively participated in panels about the complexities of the Spanish language and the characteristics of contemporary Mexican literature. Founded in 2019, the FILNYC book fair is held annually, and the 2022 edition represented a return to the physical event after the 2020 and 2021 editions, which were online due to the global pandemic. At the fair, organizers, speakers, and attendees continued to bridge cultural and geographical borders with a shared love for literature.
Between November 14 and 27, the nineteenth edition of the Celebrate Mexico Now Festival will take place: an annual celebration that features contemporary Mexican literature and culture. This year, the festival will kick off with the book presentation of Prayers for the Stolen, a novel by Mexican-American writer Jennifer Clement about growing up surrounded by drug-trafficking violence. Another opening event will be the presentation of Mexican contemporary photographer Martha Naranjo Sandoval, whose artwork focuses on the body and its relationship to its surroundings. To learn more about the event, I reached out to its founder and director Claudia Norman, cultural producer and professor at The New School, who was also part of the organizing board of the FILNYC. When asked about the festival’s struggles and difficulties, she answered that “the major challenge to bringing Hispanic culture and literature to audiences in New York is [getting] the funding to cover the logistics related with international travel (visa, air travel, housing).” Despite the hurdles, Celebrate Mexico Now has been running uninterruptedly since 2004, bringing contemporary film, dance, music, literature, and poetry from Mexico to New York.
Andriana Hamas, Editor-at-Large, reporting from Bulgaria
Even though it is already October and travels are lulled, a piece of the Bulgarian literary world has traversed local borders to the city of Frankfurt. Each year, Goethe’s birthplace welcomes hundreds of delegations, ready to proudly present their national oeuvres at the world-famous Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair).
The (BBA) announced that the country’s pavilion will showcase more than three hundred titles from one hundred and fifty publishing houses, thus providing the general public with enough reading material to last—at least until the next festival! Visitors will be able to learn about various authors, translators, and illustrators, in addition to gaining insight into little-known facts about the sector as a whole. During the opening ceremony, BBA’s head Desislava Alexieva said: “It is an exceptional honor for me to present Bulgarian literature at this prestigious forum, and I believe that our participation will arouse professional interest, draw expert attention to the priceless volumes that you see at the stand, and last but not least, promote cultural exchange and the circulation of Bulgarian books abroad.”
Among the planned events was an introduction to the state-sponsored programs that encourage translation from Bulgarian to other languages, as well as a special meeting with the children attending Bulgarian schools in the area. The pavilion’s representatives also took part in critical discussions that examined the industry’s most pressing problems and challenges—such as copyright issues in the digital age, EU tax regulations concerning books, and the collaboration between publishers and libraries.
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