The 16th Iligan National Writers Workshop Opens

The 16th Iligan National Writers Workshop opens at 9 a.m., May 25, at the MSU-IIT Mini Theatre. Works in poetry, fiction, and drama in English and our regional languages by 16 fellows from around the country will be read and discussed by a distingushed panel of some of the most respected writers in Philippine Literature.

The Iligan workshop has set the tradition of publishing its proceedings and of inviting alumni fellows to give the keynote address. This year's keynote address will be given by poet-critic Ralph Semino Galan, alumnus of the 4th workshop 12 years ago.

This year's workshop will be highlighted by the launch of About Us (Christine Godinez-Ortega, ed.) and a compilation of all the keynote addresses (Mindanao Forum, 2009) since the workshop first opened in 1994. (The workshop was organized through the efforts and visions of workshop director Godinez-Ortega, Jaime An Lim, and Cirilo Bautista).

The workshop too pays tribute to the late poet-biologist Ed Ortega in afternoon ceremonies during the program's first day.

The Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) performs a multi-media transcreation of Godinez-Ortega' s poem "Camp Bushra's Mosque on Inquirer Page One." (direction and music: Steven P.C. Fernandez, choreography: Kenn Erwin Velasquez, and installation art by the IPAG Creative Collective).

The Workshop is one of 3 institutionalized writing programs of the National Commission for Culture and the Art (NCCA). Partners of the NCCA are the Mindanao Creative Writers Group, Inc., the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, and the MSU-IIT Office of Multi-Media Information and Dissemination Unit Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension.