The Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the UP Diliman Department of English and Comparative Literature are pleased to announce the 2019 Gémino H Abad Awards for Poetry and for Literary Criticism winners and finalists.
Rayjinar Anne Marie G. Salcedo (BA Creative Writing, UP Diliman) will accept the grand prize in the poetry category for her collection Neither Nothing Nor Forgotten while Thomas David F. Chaves (MA Creative Writing, UP Diliman) will accept the top prize in the literary criticism category for his essay On the Barest of Boughs, A Poetics of Insignificance in the Contemporary Philippine Haiku. They will be awarded a certificate and P10,000 each.
Selected as finalists for poetry were Jonathan Peter Llanita (BA Creative Writing, UP Diliman) for Lessons in Grief and Louyzza Maria Victoria H. Vasquez (MA Creative Writing, UP Diliman) for Where there are words, this absence. Edmond Julian Y. Dela Cerna (MA Creative Writing, UP Diliman) advanced to the finals in the literary criticism category for What is an Editor? Ricardo de Ungria as Producer of Knowledge. A certificate and P2,500 will be given to each finalist.
The panel of judges for poetry was composed of Dr. Paolo Manalo (UP Diliman) who served as the committee head, Assoc. Prof. Heidi E. Abad (UP Diliman) and Assoc. Prof. Antonino Soria de Veyra (UP Mindanao). Literary criticism entries were judged by Dr. Lily Rose Tope (UP Diliman) who headed the committee, Dr. Jocelyn Pinzon (UP Cebu) and Ms. Eliodora Dimzon (UP Visayas).
A total of of 22 submissions from 21 students representing five UP constituent universities were received this year.
The winners and finalists will be recognized at an awards ceremony on May 10th at Palma Hall in UP Diliman.
The Gémino H Abad Awards for Poetry and for Literary Criticism were established with support from a donor to honor University Professor Emeritus Gémino H Abad for his invaluable contribution to the humanities. The system-wide competition for students was opened in 2015 with the first set of winners and finalists announced in 2016.
