Two major factors accounted for the growth of campus writing in postwar Philippines: the initiation of national writers’ workshops by UP and Silliman in the early 1960s, followed by many other university-based workshops in the 1990s, and the institution and popularity of degree programs in creative writing, culminating in the offering of a full range of programs from the bachelor’s to the master’s and PhD programs at UP. But academia has also undoubtedly had much to do with the survival and growth of creative writing in the Philippines over the past century- particularly these past four or five decades, when martial law crippled literary publishing (and much of the critical spirit that animated it) in the 1970s and shunted creative writing to the universities, where it continued to flourish, albeit without much of an audience. Philippine literature has been much too involved with language, class, and more recently with gender to find time for campus intramurals if it has any competition to worry about, it is John Grisham, Danielle Steele, and Harry Potter, who all compete for the same barely disposable peso. The literary arts are unlike athletics there is no fixed bar to leap over,Ĩ no longstanding record to break. University-based writers in the Philippines are, in fact, not engaged in a competition with each other. We are making this proud boast only to explain why, after a hundred years, we are finally emerging with a literary journal worthy of its precursors-the College Folio, the Literary Apprentice, the Diliman Review, and various other small literary journals Thankfully, as part of the celebration of the university’s centennial in 2008, the administration of the University of the Philippines Diliman saw fit to approve and support a standing proposal by the UP Institute of Creative Writing to publish Likhaan: the Journal of Contemporary Philippine Literature-not only for UP-based writers but, in consideration of UP’s position in the nation, for all Filipino writers, in both English and Filipino (and perhaps other Philippine languages, in future issues). To have been here for so long with so many good writers and yet to have had no permanent literary journal seemed an odd, if almost criminal, oversight. But UP’s preeminence in creative writing and criticism over most of the 20th century and well into this new one-particularly in English-is a fact of our literary history.Īnd magazines (Inkblots, Eleemosynary, Sitting Amok).
Tomas, Ateneo, Silliman University, and La Salle-have all made important contributions to Philippine literature, and continue to produce new works of great vitality. Other major Philippine universities-the University of Sto. It’s quite a claim to make, but it just so happens to be true. OR THE PAST one hundred years, no Philippine university has produced as splendid, as significant, and as sustained a crop of literary work and talent as the University of the Philippines. Haibun: Panimulang Pagpapakilala at Pagpapalaya sa Panulaang Filipino interview Iluminado Pamabaybay Glaukoma Pagdating Sa Dulo Sa Estasyon “H” PamamahayĪttachments Ruin Save as Draft Softness Surfacing Leaves Job Formula Story Family Life Beatific Visions A House Tell Me, Where Is the Soul The Limits of Archaeology Incompleteness (Gödel) Uncertainty Principle One Hundred Years of Leadership in LiteratureĪn Epistle and Testimony from June 13, 1604įoggy Makes Me Sad poetry Raymond de Borja Conversion Epiphany Villanueva (on leave) Resident Fellow Mr. Bienvenido Lumbera Associates Dean Virgilio S.
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The University of the Philippines Press Diliman, Quezon City Likhaan 2007 THE JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE LITERATURE