By PRINCE GOLEZ
Manila Reporter
MANILA — An Ilonggo already in the Hall of Fame of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature scooped three more awards this year.
Peter Solis Nery won the first prize for his Dulang May Isang Yugto (One-act Play) entry, “Gladiolas.”
He also bagged the third prizes in the categories Poetry for Children and Dulang Ganap ang Haba (Full-length Play) for “Those Colored Parts” and “Agimat,” respectively.
Nery, a native of Dumangas, Iloilo, will officially receive the awards on Sept. 1 at The Peninsula Manila hotel.
“It’s an incentive for me to write with a certain quality,” Nery told Panay News yesterday. “Producing Palanca-quality materials is already a triumph in itself.”
“Gladiolas” is a “gay play” in Hiligaynon-laced Filipino language and set in Iloilo province, according to Nery, a United States-based nurse.
“Those Colored Parts” is a companion piece for Nery’s Punctuation Collection, while “Agimat” is about the martyrdom of Tomas Brillones of Aklan province.
It takes him a very long time to prepare his materials, according to the author of the play “The Passion of Jovita Fuentes,” a first-place Palanca-winning piece.
“I do not believe in cramming everything in the last minute. I always take time,” said Nery, who formerly writes for Panay News.
Two of his three winning entries this year were completed three years ago, he revealed.
“I just rehashed them and fine-tuned them,” he said.
Nery will host a lecture series to be held all over the country in the next few weeks.
“One is a seminar on the art of winning literary competitions. And then there is the basic creative writing workshop,” he said. “In Mindanao, I was also requested to hold a workshop in filmmaking.”/PN
