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Sevens is the leaner, faster variant of rugby—7 players per team rather than the usual 15. Highlights from the USA Sevens:

If you want to watch live action, the next round of Philippine Rugby Football Union games in Manila will held at the University of Makati stadium on Saturday, May 15th. Juniors from 9am – 12nn and then men’s and ladies’ Rugby games from 2pm – 5pm.

Here is a photo of our friend Uro with the 9 kilogram squid he found in Laiya, San Juan, Batangas last week.

Your LitWit Challenge for this week: Write a story (maximum 1,000 words) based on this photo. What story can you glean from this photo? Don’t be too literal: I don’t want to read any stories about a guy who catches a 9 kg squid. We’ll take all genres: horror, thriller, SF, whatever you feel like.

Your deadline: 11.59 pm on Saturday, May 15.

The prize:

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by the lovely people of National Bookstore.

will be named in the next paragraph.

Parlo lover, Pangngalang Pambalana, Ayie, pulsar, Benjamin_of_12, ilaya, lance: I enjoyed reading your entries, I thought I could hear your voices. Iceproof and Momelia: I like how you exposed yourselves, not to get a little sympathy but to purge.

The winner of LitWit Challenge 2.10 is johnbristol16 for the highly evocative piece—you can smell his Balara neighborhood. (Down, animal rights activists: the offending statement is not to be taken literally, it’s just the protagonist’s way of saying Something has to be done about all the dog poop. But if it is an accurate summation of his attitude, I hope he meets a rabid Rottweiler on a narrow sidewalk at 3 am.)

Congratulations, johnbristol16, please post your full name in Comments (it won’t be published) and let us know if you’d prefer to pick up your books at National Bookstore in Rockwell, or at Nella Sarabia’s optical shop in UP Shopping Center, closer to Balara.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by the good people of National Bookstore. LitWit Challenge 2.11 is coming right up.

How’d it go? Was the voting process smooth or aggravating? How long did you have to line up? Were you hassled or threatened? We want to hear about it. Please post your account in Comments. Thank you for voting.

Watch Bill Murray reading poetry to construction workers.

Poetry isn’t something to impress teachers and gullible dates with, poetry is life.

Now go out and make your life epic. Vote.

Ilustrado, the UK cover

Miguel Syjuco’s wildly entertaining “Ilustrado” was the recipient of the 2008 Man Asia Literary Prize. Such awards, as readers know, all too often go to earnest, high-minded, politically correct and rather dull books. In this case, I picture the judges, weary from perusing massive laser-printed works of heart-sinking merit, suddenly rejoicing at the discovery of a manuscript as engaging as this one, absolutely assured in its tone, literary sophistication and satirical humor. . . Read Michael Dirda’s review in the Washington Post.

HONG KONG — The story begins with the death of Crispin Salvador, an expatriate Filipino author living in New York, whose body is found floating in the Hudson River. He had been scathingly critical of his home country before his mysterious demise.

It is part of a novel, a satire of the chaos and violence of Philippine politics called “Ilustrado,” the first book by Miguel Syjuco, an expatriate Filipino author living in Montreal. . . Read An Expatriate Filipino Writes of a Parallel Life in the NYT.

Ilustrado, the US cover