The University of Santo Tomas (UST) Publishing House has released new titles in drama, fiction and literary criticism.

Authored by Sir Anril Tiatco, “Cuaresma: Isang Dulang Ganap ang Haba” is a full-length play in two acts that is based on Rizal’s unfinished novel, “Makamisa” (using Ambeth Ocampo’s annotations). The story revolves around the small South Luzon town of Pili, where memorable characters mirror the Filipino traditions of the time.

Despite the unfinished narrative, Tiatco has successfully reinvented the characters from Rizal’s novel (such as Ysagani and Fr. Agaton) into his own vision of what Philippine society was and remains to be: one that is steeped in political dynasties, that involves the Church in its interactions with various areas of human affairs, and that hinges on personal family dramas where all secrets kept will eventually be revealed.

Andrea Pasion-Flores unpacks the black boxes of everyday disasters to her readers with her first latest collection of short fiction, “For Love and Kisses.”

The collection is made up of seven stories: “For Love and Kisses,” “Vanessa Calling,” “Buttercups,” “Skin Art,” “Love in Mini Stops,” “The Hungry Ghost,” and “How to Drink Whisky, if You’re A Girl,” all of which take on the various lives and issues of Filipino women. Her characters range from little girls to teenagers to young professionals, and the stories highlight their life concerns, from the pains of young love and grade school memories, to getting tattoos and rebuffing unwanted attention from strangers, to weddings and extramarital affairs.

Award-winning writer and critic Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo commends Pasion-Flores’s work as a fine collection. She cautions that readers who expect the worlds of her short stories to be safe and unruffled are in for a surprise, for each of the stories may turn out to be disturbingly perilous.

“Kritik/Critique: Essays from the J. Elizalde Navarro National (JEN) Workshop in the Criticism of the Arts and Humanities, 2009-2012,” is an anthology of scholarly articles, edited by renowned Filipino-American studies scholar and theorist Oscar V. Campomanes. It showcases some of the best products of the last five J.E.N. Workshops, whose participants have included writers, academics and art practitioners from the country’s top universities and media agencies.

The featured essays cover topics and issues that concur with those of current global praxis in the arts and humanities—from diaspora to digital poetry, bodies to beauty, Shakespeare to Gina Apostol, queer politics to metacriticism, architectural kitsch to young adult fiction. Both Rebecca Añonuevo and Shirley Lua, leading Filipino writers and critics, agree that this collection is a testament to the fact that intellectual consideration of the arts is flourishing—that it is the result of a serious, rigorous endeavor, and that it can only be achieved through effective and consistent mentoring.

The JEN National Workshop is annually organized by the Varsitarian, the official student publication of UST. It is held in honor of the late National Artist for the Visual Arts J. Elizalde Navarro, who was Varsitarian art editor during his UST days and later, one of the foremost modern masters and a top art critic.

Titles are now available in leading bookshops and at the UST Publishing House Bookstore, G/F Beato Angelico Bldg., University of Santo Tomas, Manila. For inquiries, please call tel. 4061611 local 8252/8278, or send an email to [email protected]. Please also visit the Facebook page at https://facebook.com/USTPublishingHouse.