JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Winning a Palanca Award changed my life. After college I was a freelance writer contributing feature articles to magazines like Metro (where I met my lovely future editor, the late, much-missed Abe Florendo) or churning out ten versions of the same press release for PR agencies (The rent must be paid), but dreaming of writing short stories and novels. There were very few places where you could get fiction published, but if you had a Palanca Award you would be taken seriously.

I remember it was an apocalyptic time, ashfall from Mt Pinatubo, the earthquake that leveled much of Baguio, war in Iraq, people having strange visions, and me feeling scared and anxious that the world was going to break apart and I hadn’t even started living yet. I sat in the dinky apartment I shared with two friends and wrote a short story called Portents. Then I thought, What the hell, submit it to the Palanca Awards.

In those ancient times before the commercial Internet, you had to submit four typewritten copies of your story and a notarized document swearing that you had written the piece yourself. I trudged to the Palanca office on Palanca Street to submit my entry, and I hoped I didn’t run into anyone I knew because I wanted to keep it a secret. I don’t like joining contests, I suck at them. (I seldom get anything I apply for; on the other hand if I do nothing, the skies open and stuff just falls on me.)

One day I got a telegram. A telegram! Anyone remember telegrams? It said my story had won and I was to keep the news to myself until the awards dinner, which was always held on September 1. The dinner was at the Peninsula, it was full of established writers whose work I’d read in school, and I felt like a gatecrasher. But having a Palanca Award (whose value was increased because by some fluke Krip Yuson’s brilliant story had come in second) made me feel like a “serious” writer and kick-started my book publishing career. If you had a Palanca, you would probably not be laughed out of a publisher’s office.

I won a couple more in the years that followed, then I decided I was pushing my luck and quit submitting entries.

If you write fiction, poetry, essays, anything you think of as “literature”, I cannot recommend joining the competition enough. Congratulations to this year’s winners.

Youth Division

Sanaysay
1st Prize Jack Lorenz Acebedo Rivera, Paglaya Mula sa Pagtakas
2nd Prize Jacob Renz R. Ambrocio, Sino ang Lumansag sa Lunday ni Lola Basyang?
3rd Prize Maria Jamaica S. Columbres, Gulugod sa Pagsibol ng Binhi

Essay
1st Prize Floriane T. Taruc, Worlds Behind Words
2nd Prize Jaz Varon Villanueva, Boundless
3rd Prize Jana Gillian Ang, A Passage to Reading

Filipino Division

Short Story
1st Prize Eugene C. Soyosa, Gina
2nd Prize Andrew A. Estacio, Ang Kanonisasyon ng mga Santa Santino
3rd Prize Luna Sicat Cleto, Tatlong Proposisyon ng Puting Hangin

Maikling Kuwentong Pambata
1st Prize Jerwin Eileen G.C. Tarnate, Ang Higad at ang Paru-paro
2nd Prize Eugene Y. Evasco, Siyap ng Isang Sisiw
3rd Prize Early Sol A. Gadong, Maraming-Maraming-Marami

Sanaysay
1st Prize Engr. Gil A. Dulon Jr., Amoral Ang Siyensya Subalit May Boses Din Ang Mga Maso
2nd Prize Adelma L. Salvador, Kambak-kambak
3rd Prize Iza Maria G. Reyes, Hindi Ako Dalisay

Tula
1st Prize Paul Alcoseba Castillo, Luna’t Lunas
2nd Prize Mark Anthony S. Angeles, Ang Babae sa Balangiga at iba pang Tula
3rd Prize Noel Galon, Ang Bata sa Panahon ng Ligalig: Mga Tula sa loob at labas ng Bayan ng San Diego

Tula Para Sa Mga Bata
1st Prize Paterno B. Baloloy Jr., Paumanhin ng Kuting
2nd Prize Will P. Ortiz, Himbing na Kuting at iba pang Tula sa Ilalim ng Araw
3rd Prize Noel P. Tuazon, Klik Madyik

Dulang may Isang Yugto
1st Prize Michelle Josephine G. Rivera, Kaharian ng Pinto
2nd Prize Maynard Gonzales Manansala, Tao Po
3rd Prize Allan B. Lopez, River Lethe

Dulang Ganap Ang Haba
1st Prize Walang Nagwagi
2nd Prize Walang Nagwagi
3rd Prize Rolin Cadallo Obina, San Nicolas (Ang Sarsuwela)

Dulang Pampelikula

1st Prize James Ladioray, 11 Septembers
2nd Prize Arden Rod B. Condez, John Denver Trending
3rd Prize Andrian M. Legaspi, Pandanggo sa Hukay

Regional Division

Short Story – Cebuano
1st Prize Januar E. Yap, Baradero
2nd Prize Dave T. Pregoner, Sunog
3rd Prize Leoncio P. Deriada, Dili Baya ko Bugoy

Short Story – Hiligaynon
1st Prize Early Sol A. Gadong, Sa Lum-ok Sang Imo Suso
2nd Prize Alice Tan Gonzales, Haya
3rd Prize Dulce Maria V. Deriada, Candelaria

Short Story – Ilokano
1st Prize Ariel Sotelo Tabag, Gasanggasat
2nd Prize Paul Blanco Zafaralla, Sarming
3rd Prize Jaime M. Agpalo Jr., Nakakidem-a-Simumulagat

English Division

Short Story
1st Prize Joe Bert Lazarte, Describe the Rapture
2nd Prize Francis Paolo M. Quina, Pigs
3rd Prize Matthew Jacob F. Ramos, The Final Bullet

Short Story for Children
1st Prize No Winner
2nd Prize No Winner
3rd Prize Maryrose Jairene Cruz-Eusebio, I have Two Mothers

Essay
1st Prize Jefry Canoy, Buhay Pa Kami: Dispatches from Marawi
2nd Prize Ronnie E. Baticulon, Some Days You Can’t Save Them All
3rd Prize Chuck D. Smith, Origin Story
* Chuck from Writing Boot Camp!

Poetry
1st Prize Rodrigo V. Dela Peña Jr., Self-portrait with Plastic Bag
2nd Prize Shane Carreon, The Gods who Dissolved under our Tongues and other Poems
3rd Prize Jose Luis B. Pablo, To Desire in Liturgy

Poetry Written for Children
1st Prize Maria Amparo Nolasco Warren, Lola Elina Maria’s Savory-Sweet Cookbook of Poetry
2nd Prize Sigrid Marianne P. Gayangos, Of Monsters, Math and Magic
3rd Prize Roselle Eloise B. Bunayog, Brave, Undying Warriors

One-Act Play
1st Prize Katrina M. Bonillo, Burying Mamang in Sugar
2nd Prize Joe Bert Lazarte, Senator Pancho Aunor’s Blue Balls of Despair and Disillusionment
3rd Prize Luciano Sonny O. Valencia, Leavings

Full Length Play
1st Prize Beryl Andrea P. Delicana, Mango Tree
2nd Prize Patrick James M. Valera, Symphony
3rd Prize Dominique La Victoria, Toward the Fires of Revolution