Calling all writers! Unpublished or not, here’s your chance for national recognition with the 69th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. The foundation is now open for submissions until May 31. Want to take a shot? Here’s what’s up.
Every Filipino has a fair shot at being nominated for a Palanca, and that includes the youth. The Palanca Awards has a special category for young writers aged 18 and below called Kabataan Division, which aims to award the best young personal essayists in English and Filipino. This year’s question for the Kabataan entries is: “At a time when spreading of misinformation is getting common, what can you do to help people, especially the youth, search for the truth?”
The Palanca Awards is also accepting submissions for its regular divisions. For the English and Filipino Divisions, entries for Short Story, Short Story for Children, Essay, Poetry, Poetry Written for Children, One-act Play, and Full-length Play is being accepted, plus an additional subcategory of Dulang Pampelikula in Filipino. There is also a Regional Languages Division, which is accepting short stories written in Cebuano, Hiligaynon, and Ilokano. For novelists, there is the Novel and Nobela Category.
The contest is open to all current and former Filipino citizens, except individuals employed under the foundation. For novel entries, any published works must have been published at most two years prior to May 31, 2019. For other published entries, any that came out from Jun 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 will be honored except for Dulang Pampelikula submissions, which will only honor unpublished works. In other categories, all unpublished works are welcome for submission.
To submit your entry, head over to the Palanca Foundation office in Makati to submit a physical copy. Palanca hopefuls will only be allowed to submit one entry per category, so better choose your best work!
For more information, visit their site.
Art by Marx Fidel