Poesie für Freiheit, Gerechtigkeit, und Frieden

National Artist for Literature (2003)

Virgilio S. Almario, also known as Rio Alma, is a poet, literary historian and critic, who has revived and reinvented traditional Filipino poetic forms, even as he championed modernist poetics. In 34 years, he has published 12 books of poetry, which include the seminal Makinasyon and Peregrinasyon, and the landmark trilogy Doktrinang Anakpawis, Mga Retrato at Rekwerdo and Muli, Sa Kandungan ng Lupa. In these works, his poetic voice soared from the lyrical to the satirical to the epic, from the dramatic to the incantatory, in his often severe examination of the self, and the society.

He has also redefined how the Filipino poetry is viewed and paved the way for the discussion of the same in his 10 books of criticisms and anthologies, among which are Ang Makata sa Panahon ng Makina, Balagtasismo versus Modernismo, Walong Dekada ng Makabagong Tula Pilipino, Mutyang Dilim and Barlaan at Josaphat.

Many Filipino writers have come under his wing in the literary workshops he founded –the Galian sa Arte at Tula (GAT) and the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA). He has also long been involved with children’s literature through the Aklat Adarna series, published by his Children’s Communication Center. He has been a constant presence as well in national writing workshops and galvanizes member writers as chairman emeritus of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).

But more than anything else, what Almario accomplished was that he put a face to the Filipino writer in the country, one strong face determinedly wielding a pen into untruths, hypocrisy, injustice, among others.

Source: National Commission for Culture and the Arts | ncca.gov.ph

Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta is an award-winning writer from the Philippines. She has published five collections of poetry, two of which one first place at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, the foremost literary prize in the Philippines. Her latest poetry collection College Boy won the National Book award in 2023.

During the pandemic, Katigbak-Lacuesta wrote Assembling Alice, a biofiction on the life of Alice Feria, her maternal grandmother, and one of the first Filipina journalists in the Philippines. It was hailed as an audacious invention that was also “a sharply-observed and lyrically-rendered depiction of an era.”

Katigbak-Lacuesta has been the Filipino delegate to international literary festivals in Dubai, Rotterdam, Medellín, San Francisco, Macau, Kuala Lumpur and South Korea. In 2015, she completed a writing residency for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Paul Alcoseba Castillo teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), where he is finishing his doctorate degree in Literature. He is a product of the national creative writing workshops of UST and Iligan, as well as film criticism workshops. He is a resident fellow of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies and a researcher at the UST Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities. He is currently the Deputy Director of the UST Publishing House. His poetry has been widely recognized: 1st Place for Poetry in Filipino at the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (2018), 3rd place twice at the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino’s Makata ng Taon: Talaang Ginto (2018, 2017), 3rd place at the Maningning Miclat Poetry Awards (2013), and Best Book of Poetry in Filipino at the National Book Awards (2019).

He is a member of Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika, at Anyo (LIRA), the oldest organization of poets writing in Filipino, and is serving as a Board Member of the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Pananangan (Librong LIRA, 2016), Mga Kuwadro (Aklat Ulagad, 2023), a journal monograph under the Tomás Journal titled Pag Napako Ang Pangako (CCWLS, 2023), and three poetry collections, namely, Walang Iisang Salita (2018), Lunas sa Nabubuong Lubos (2021), and Kondenado (2023), all published by the UST Publishing House. He has a forthcoming collection of poetry titled Ang Lihim, Kung Pag-ibig (Librong LIRA).