All the writers are from two central Philippine islands: Negros (yes, that IS the name of one of the islands, thank you Spanish colonizers who named it after the locals, who were “Negros” — dark-skinned) and Siquijor.
Buglas was the pre-Spanish name for Negros.
It is edited by writers from the Dumaguete Writers Workshop.
Self’s story Dumaguete is in it, which renders her speechless. Just speechless!
Welcome from the Editors.
Submission Guidelines here.
Self has driven this route. Ten years ago.
Doreen G. Fernandez (self’s second mother) had made an appointment to visit Vicente Lobaton, kinilaw artist. Kinilaw is the Filipino version of sushi. And it’s rather a specialty in the Visayan Islands, in the central Philippines. The number one requirement is that the seafood be freshly caught. And in a country with over 7000 islands, there’s no excuse not to have seafood that is freshly caught. Kinilaw is served with a “dressing” called sawsawan. Want to know more? It’s all in Doreen’s book, Kinilaw (1991) She goes on to describe the meal, which involved kinilaw crab, fish, and shrimp. (SO hungry right now)
Doreen was from the self-same island that Dear Departed Dad was from. It has a very non-PC name: Negros. That’s right, the island is named Negros because its people were dark. It has been named that since the 16th century. It is divided into two provinces: Negros Occidental (where self’s Dear Departed Dad, and Doreen, were from) and Negros Oriental. Negros Oriental has this really cool city called Dumaguete, which became the title for one of self’s short stories (It’s in MsAligned 3, published earlier this year)
Vicente, who goes by Enting, has two restaurants on Negros. One is Enting’s Manukan in Sagay; the other is Enting’s Lechonan on 17th St. near Lacson in downtown Bacolod, the capitol of Negros Occidental.
Stay safe, dear blog readers. Stay safe.
When Is a Poem Already a Poem
from the Likhaan Book of Poetry and Fiction, edited by Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr. and Ricardo M. de Ungria (University of the Philippines, 1996)
I wasn’t listening when you asked that question.
I was looking out the window, at the boat
That was just then leaving the port of Dumaguete.
One more day and already I imagined
Myself on that boat, slumped in a chair,
Holding a book like a cup of coffee,
Hoping that during the passage across
The strait I could read without spilling
A word, but then I remembered I still
Had to send someone to buy me a ticket,
And there was your question, and how far the boat
Had gone out in the poem of the sea, now
That I wished someone there would think of us.
From the boat someone could see the mountains, but not us.
From the boat someone could see the mountains, but not us.
Already we had become the Cuernos de Negros.
Simeon Dumdum Jr. is a Filipino judge on the island of Cebu, and a well-known poet. We met in 2009, at an International PEN Conference. Have loved his poetry ever since.
This week share a photo of a satisfying pairing from your own life.
— Ben Huberman, The Daily Post
Sometime in this literary magazine’s infancy, the editor contacted self (through this blog) and solicited a short story.
The issue was 1.2
Now, the magazine is in its sixth year.
The story self submitted to them was “Dumaguete.” Here’s an excerpt:
His mother had taken him to the green campus of Silliman University, and there, among the tall, old acacia trees, they’d stumbled across a small museum that held shells and various voodoo paraphernalia from the small island just offshore, Siquijor. From the city’s seaside promenade, one could just discern the faint outline of the island. All day, outriggers plied the distance between the large and small island, ferrying shell vendours and curious tourists to and fro. Carlos had heard numerous stories of this fabled place, but his mother showed no inclination to go there.
Intrigued? Want to read the rest of it? Go here.
“Dumaguete” is in self’s third story collection, The Lost Language (which is only available in the Philippines).
Self has been to that island, just off Dumaguete. At least three times.
Stay tuned.
Self loves the current WordPress Photo Challenge: HUMANITY. As it turned out, almost everything she’s posted on this theme so far are photos she took in the Philippines.
Siquijor is an island off Dumaguete, in the province of Negros Oriental.
Its allure has always been powerfully mysterious, at least to self. It’s rather a large island, with several well-populated towns. But it seems a world apart. The people of Siquijor may be poor, but they don’t appear desperate. The island is clean, and tourists don’t seem to be coming in droves, thank God.
She’s visited the island a couple of times, the last time in 2012. It’s a short ferry ride from Dumaguete.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
This week’s WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is “Good Morning.” Ah, mornings are absolutely self’s favorite time of day. The day is all possibility, and her thoughts are clear. Here are three iconic “Good Morning” memories:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Here, dear blog readers, various seas:
Self loves the sea. Or views of water of any kind.
That is what happens when you grow up on an archipelago!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
The WordPress Photo Challenge this week is to post shots taken during “The Golden Hour” — Here’s the prompt:
In photography, the “Golden Hour” is the first and last hour of sunlight of the day . . . go out and snap a photograph, wherever you may be, during this Golden Hour — and pay attention to the natural light around you.
Love the theme! Here are a few of self’s “Golden Hour” shots.
Golden Hour 1: Free concerts in Stafford Park, Redwood City, every Wednesday throughout the summer, 6 to 8 pm.
Golden Hour 2: A Philippine beach at sunrise
Golden Hour 3: New York City, not quite dusk
That’s it! But, self hastens to assure dear blog readers: these definitely won’t be the last posts on this theme!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 