A MID-CAREER Bacolod City radioman, a young Ilonggo artist from Janiuay, Iloilo, and a retired teacher and now rural development consultant in South Cotabato are this year’s recipients of the Peter’s Prize for Excellence in Literature (Mga Binalaybay Sabat sa Panghangkat / Poem-a-thon Challenge), Excellence in Visual Arts (Digital Illustration), and Excellence in Cultural Dissemination, respectively.
Serafin Plotria was voted winner by his co-participants in the month-long “June 2018 Poem-a-thon and Poetry Workshop with Peter Solis Nery”, an international and online poetry challenge over Facebook.
Kristoffer Brasileño was singled out for his dedication to children’s book illustration using digital media, and for his personal pop-surrealist style that has also graced many murals in Iloilo City in recent years.
Janeth Deza Demegillo is honored for promoting Hiligaynon literature, and creative writing, in Koronadal, South Cotabato through the various seminars and workshops she has organized over the years.
They join as the 19th, 20th, and 21st medalists of the growing roster of winners since Peter’s Prize began in 2013.
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Plotria wins Peter’s Prize in Literature
Aside from his position as station manager of iFM 94.3 Bacolod in the last 15 years, Serafin Plotria is also a faculty member of the Mass Communication Program of the University of Negros Occidental – Recoletos, and a five-term Chairman of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas – Negros Occidental Chapter.
Multiawarded as a campus journalist in college, and in his almost two decade-long broadcasting career, Plotria is also a Hiligaynon translator, playwright, and media literacy educator in Negros.
In June, he joined the online Poem-a-thon with Peter Solis Nery, and labored to write one Hiligaynon poem everyday based on prompts. He claims the challenge “rekindled in him his neglected passion for literary writing.”
As winner of the Peter’s Prize for Literature, Plotria vows to seriously take his commission as The Peter Solis Nery Foundation’s ambassador of literature and the arts in particularly in Negros. Presently, he is organizing Hubon Negrense, a writers’ collective in Negros that is fully supported and endorsed by The Peter Solis Nery Foundation.
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Brasileño wins Peter’s Prize in Visual Arts
The 29-year old Ilonggo artist Kristoffer Brasileño from Janiuay took up Fine Arts Major in Painting from the University of San Agustin (graduated in 2015) after becoming a registered nurse (graduated his BSN in 2010).
In June 2015, he started working as instructor and lecturer of Digital Media and Interactive Arts Program of the College of Computer Studies at the Central Philippine University, a post he continues to hold today even as he runs his own ScratchPaper Studios in Jaro where he paints and develops his style that can only be described as Pinoy Pop-Surrealism.
Actively participating in the Ilonggo art scene, Brasileño is also the current president of the Iloilo Visual Artists Collective, and has been part of many group art exhibits since 2011.
He has also won national recognitions including finalist honors at the Metrobank, and Shell, art competitions; and a top ten position at the national Don Papa Rum painting contest.
Brasileño had his first solo art show in 2016 at the Casa Real Gallery. With the support of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation, sponsor of the Peter’s Prize, he is currently preparing for his next solo exhibit.
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Demegillo wins Peter’s Prize in Cultural Dissemination
Janeth Deza Demegillo taught high school English in Dumangas for a while; then joined the Iloilo State College of Fisheries in Dumangas and Barotac Nuevo; and moving up the ranks, even held VP position in the college.
After taking her doctorate degree in Rural Development, she retired from teaching and moved to Koronadal City where she now operates a Montessori school, among other people’s resource business ventures; even as she works in various city and provincial development consultancy projects.
As a cultural worker in South Cotabato, Demegillo has organized various seminars and workshops in journalism, filmmaking, literature, and creative writing, often inviting resource speakers from all over the country. She has organized at least three creative writing workshops with Peter Solis Nery in Koronadal since 2014.
Partnering with The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. in last year, Demegillo and her group of companies also ventured into publishing the first anthology of new South Cotabato writings.
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I am proud of the Peter’s Prize.
Just like how some of the Nobel Prize winners are virtually unknown to me, some of the Peter’s Prize winners are probably unknown to you.
But for a certain year, they were the best in what they do, and what we look for… at least, for most of the prize winners.
The other Peter’s Prize look like lifetime achievement awards.
And they are all well deserved.
So more than just being proud of the Peter’s Prize, I’m very proud of the Peter’s Prize winners.
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Felino Garcia, Jr. has already won a Palanca (second prize to my first prize Hiligaynon short story in 2007) when my Foundation awarded him a Special Peter’s Prize for Literary Criticism in 2014.
It was his first award for his excellent work in literary criticism and West Visayan literature history that nobody else seem to recognize.
This year Felino won the NCCA Translation Prize.
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Jesus Insilada, the first winner of Peter’s Prize for Poetry, went on to win his first Palanca gold two years after his Peter’s prize win in 2013. He has four Palanca awards as of 2017, and could very well win again this year.
Earlier this year, he was celebrated as a finalist at the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize.
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Early Sol Gadong, first winner of Peter’s Prize for Fiction (2013), and first back-to-back winner in the Short Fiction category (she won again in 2014), also went on to win a Palanca award for her Hiligaynon short story in 2016.
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Ma. Cecilia Locsin-Nava is an outstanding scholar and West Visayan cultural worker. She has won numerous book awards for her masterful translation of the works of Ramon Muzones, among other great creative output.
She probably didn’t need the Peter’s Prize. But The Peter Solis Nery Foundation wished to honor her work in West Visayan scholarship and literary studies, so she was awarded the special prize in 2017.
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In 2017, John Michael Catigan became the first winner of the Peter’s Prize for Visual Arts (Painting).
The award led him to the 2018 Gawad Agustino in Culture and the Arts from the University of San Agustin.
In May this year, Michael had his first solo painting exhibit at Et Nos Gallery.
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For her work in broadcast communication, and especially in the culture-based radio program “Tatak Negrense” in Negros Occidental, The Peter Solis Nery Foundation chose to honor Chona Villaluna Gosiaoco last year with a Special Prize for Cultural Dissemination.
As ambassadress for culture, literature, and the arts, Chona has been actively promoting the literary activities of the Foundation in Negros, and has even tried her hand in creative writing by joining the online Poem-a-thon and Poetry Workshop with Peter Solis Nery.
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Choreographer, playwright, composer, and all-around theater artist Ismael Java was also awarded a Special Prize for Theatre Arts in 2017 for his lifetime’s worth of work in the performing arts, and now in the creation and promotion of cultural festivals of Negros.
Ismael is a longtime supporter of the Peter Solis Nery Foundation, and is a perennial winner and/or finalist in the competitive writing categories of the Peter’s Prize.
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So yeah, I’m a proud creator of the Peter’s Prize.
And I’m prouder still of the Peter’s Prize winners…
And what greatness they will become! (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
