ILOILO City – President Rodrigo Roa Duterte appointed Ilonggo writer Alain Russ Dimzon as Part-time Commissioner of the Commission on the Filipino Language, representing Hiligaynon.
Dimzon’s appointment was signed by the President on Jan. 24, 2019. His term will expire on Jan. 6, 2022.
Dimzon, who used to write the column “Routes” for Panay News, was the first fellow in Hiligaynon Poetry to the University of the Philippines National Writers Workshop.
He won the Gawad Emmanuel Lacaba (Best New Writer in Hiligaynon) of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in 2000 and the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Hiligaynon Poetry in 2018 from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL).
Dimzon is the author of Ang Manunulat kag ang Pendulum (Hiligayon Poems with English Translation & Notes on the Author’s Philological Theory); Repentances & Rehabilitations (Earliest Published Poems); and co-author of Walo kag Dose Na (Contemporary Hiligaynon Songs in the Folk Style Tradition) and Tingog sa Iya mga Alagyan (Bible-based Folk Style Songs for Children) with Prof. Romulo Pangan.
As a poet, fictionist, lyricist, and songwriter, Dimzon’s other awards came from Hiligaynon Magasin, Home Life, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Komisyon Sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), Fray Luis de Leon Creative Writing Institute, Department of Tourism, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ilonggo Music Festival, and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
He has authored and co-authored scientific and policy papers which passed the screening, were invited, presented or published by the University of Florida, American Academy of Sciences, Widener University of Pennsylvania, Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, the International Society on Equity in Health-Canada, and Sustainable Resource Development (SURED) – Germany.
Dimzon’s works in Hiligaynon, Filipino and English have appeared in Home Life, National Midweek, Philippine Panorama of the Manila Bulletin, Sunday Inquirer Magazine of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic, The Sunday Times, Ani, Patubas, CCP Literary Yearbook, all of the Cultural Center of the Philippines; Mantala of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, In Time Passing There Are Things of the Society of St. Paul, Native Words Native Roots of Mindanao State University, The Best of Likhaan of the UP Creative Writing Center – Diliman, San Ag of the University of San Agustin, Busay of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, Philippine Studies of Ateneo de Manila University, Tulaan Sa Tren of the National Book Development Board, Under the Storm of the MOV International Film, Music and Literature Festival, Sansiglong Mahigit na Makabagong Tula sa Pilipinas of Anvil Publishing, PEN Journal of the Philippine Center for International PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists International) , Ang Pagbalik Sang Babaylan of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filpipino, Sa Atong Dila of the UP Press, Alpha Records, RAWA Records, Calgary Church (Hong Kong), and the Asian Composers League.
His services have been hired by the Save the Children Foundation, Canadian Urban Institute, World Wildlife Fund, and the World Bank Institute, among others. (Victor Prodigo/PN)
