Child’s Play and Other Poems

I uploaded my first collection of poetry, Child’s Play and Other Poems. It’s long overdue but, what the heck! Thought I’d just get it over with so I can move on to my next collection. Hope you enjoy this. (I’ll just link you to the issuu.com site, as I can’t have the automatic link here.)

Dream

I’m happy for Claire and John, my colleagues at UP Mindanao, who will soon be leaving for The New School in New York City. Claire will be in the MA in Media Studies program, while John will be doing his MFA in Creative Writing. Both got Ford Fellowships to pursue their dreams. Good luck, guys!

Unique voice

Jasper Nikki de la Cruz, senior UP Mindanao Creative Writing student, treated us to several rounds of beer to celebrate his Best Thesis award for his collection “The Spider Dealers and Other Stories.” He was hands down the unanimous choice among the panelists. Fictionist Timothy Montes said that his is a unique voice in Philippine fiction. 

His short story collection are peopled by characters drawn from among his childhood friends and classmates who go through several misadventures as they try to deal with the grown-up world (the first title for his collection was “The Pogiboys and Other Stories”). My favorite character is the mute guy who communicates by writing on a small board hung around his neck. And the main character for the title story is a young tomboyish girl who deals spiders for duels.

Watch out for this guy’s fiction coming soon in Philippines Free Press and Graphic.