12 Fellows to the 50th UP National Writers Workshop (April 10-17, 2011)

The University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing (UP ICW) announces the fellows to the 50th UP National Writers Workshop to be held from April 10-17, 2011 in Camp John Hay, Baguio City. The fellows and associates of the UP ICW selected twelve writers in mid-career to participate in the annual workshop. 

This year’s workshop director is award-winning fictionist Jun Cruz Reyes, PhD.

Fellows for English are: 

Jennifer Rebecca L. Ortuoste, 

Ronald Baytan, 

Clarissa Militante, 

Allan Pastrana, 

Nerissa Del Carmen Guevara, and 

Yvette Tan.  

Fellows for Filipino are: 

John Torres, 

German Gervacio, 

Genevieve L. Asenjo, 

Axel Alejandro A. Pinpin, 

Khavn dela Cruz, and 

John Iremil Teodoro.

The workshop panelists are all advisers, fellows, and associates of the ICW. Aside from Jun Cruz Reyes, the panelists are National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, ICW director Jose Dalisay, Jr., Gemino Abad, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Neil Garcia, Charlson Ong, Conchitina Cruz, Rolando Tolentino, Victor Carmelo Nadera, Mario Miclat, and Romulo Baquiran Jr. National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario will be on a sabbatical during the workshop and will not be joining the panel this year.

Check out the UP Workshop 2011 Blog.

Unlike most national writing workshops, the UP National Writers Workshop is only for advanced writers. The UP ICW is the lone institution that holds a workshop of this kind in the country. The current workshop format was borne out of the need to address the dearth of venues for writers in mid-career to exchange ideas on their craft and their current literary projects.

Prior to the new format, the UP ICW has held the annual UP National Writers Workshop for the country’s most promising beginning writers since the 1960s. Through the years other writing centers of other universities have instituted their own workshops for beginning writers, thus freeing the UP ICW to address other concerns.

To qualify for the workshop, writers must satisfy the following requirements. (1) must be writers in English or Filipino; (2) must have attended at least one creative writing workshop (national/regional, including the UP National Writers’ Workshops), or earned a degree in Creative Writing/Malikhaing Pagsulat, or won at least one national/international literary award; (3) must have published at least three poems or two short stories or two pieces of creative nonfiction (e.g., essays, memoirs, profiles) in reputable collections or anthologies, journals, magazines (including campus publications), or refereed Internet web magazines, or have had a stage- or screenplay produced.