“The writers will walk away, feeling positive and encouraged they have addressed some of the challenges, enabled to stay focused on their goals”
ONLY 19 days to the full moon on May 12, Ilokano writers gather for two days in the coastal town of Santa Teresita in Cagayan for their annual convention and literary workshop.
Since its foundation in 1968, Ilokanos, mainly from northern Philippines and Metro Manila and later in Hawaii and other areas overseas where there are Ilokano writers, have conscientiously gathered for this looked forward to event to exchange pleasantries and memories with their compeers.
They are paying members – they pay annual membership dues – of GUMIL Filipinas, an acronym for the national association of Ilokano writers at home and abroad, with the umbrella organization based here with chapters scattered in the provinces and abroad.
Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission-registered association, arguably the largest and most connected literary group in the country, is led by poet and fictionist Ariel Tabag, a 46-year-old son of Santa Teresita, where the guest of honor, Dionisio Bulong, retired editor of the Ilokano magazine Bannawag, a novelist and former musician, also comes from.
Bulong, now in his 80s, is certain to unreel before veteran and aspiring writers how he felt the first time his first fiction was published by Bannawag on Nov 7, 1960, when he was only 19 years old – then as now an honor with the literary parvenu hero-worshipped by other aspiring writers.
At that time, he was pleasantly but silently stupefied, with fellow writer Meliton, who eventually had his short story published too by Bannawag.
He never teased the idea that years later, after finishing journalism from Lyceum of the Philippines when he left their farm in Simbaluca in his hometown, he would become the top editorial honcho of Bannawag which out of turn calls itself “the Bible of the north.”.
“We thought then that we were already exceptional and fabulous. We gained friends and how they doled on us whenever we passed by a crowd, Bulong, now a grandfather but still continuing writing novels, told us, hoisted by the thought, now just a memory, of the bottles of alcohol that accompanied their hometown corner celebration.
Bulong, who also headed GUMIL Filipinas after the millennium rollover, recalls, and he will impress this upon the young writers, not to lose their confidence when their ‘masterpieces’ receive marginal notes in the event they are returned. That is not rejection, but an open door for greater opportunities.
Bulong’s acceptance as GUMIL’s guest of honor endorses his credo that literary organizations achieve several goals by holding seminars and conventions, which include fostering community, facilitating networking, providing professional development opportunities, as well as promoting literature and writing.
Like other senior men of letters have repeatedly underlined, these events serve as a platform for writers to connect, learn from other industry experts, and gain inspiration while establishing the organization’s reputation and reach a wider audience.
There will also be lectures during the convention, giving out of awards, highlighted on the next day by an election for a new set of officials who will look after the association and its members during the next two years.
We are sure, having been to similar uncountable conventions in the past, the weekend event will enable participants to exchange ideas, compare their points of view and develop collaborations while reaching a wider audience with the scheduled book launches during the two-day event.
Off stage, there will be an overflow of intimate discussions and sharing of thoughts and success stories among writers, meeting for the nth time or even for the first time – sufficient, from where we are, as a wellspring of inspiration and motivation to help them stay engaged and committed to their craft.
Past the convention environment, the writers will walk away, feeling positive and encouraged they have addressed some of the challenges, enabled to stay focused on their goals.
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We take this space to greet the oldest in our family, manang dakkel, born Petrona Rambayon Urbano in Pinili, Ilocos Norte but is now residing in Richardson, Texas where she and our eldest brother relocated in the 1980s after the latter retired from writing lesson plans for his public school classrooms in Dupax, Nueva Vizcaya and later in our hometown.
Our sister-in-law, who studied at the Paoay North Institute and Junior Colleges before the second world war in the 1940s, will be 103 on April 30.
Her two sons and four daughters have given her good reasons reasons to be called grandma and great grandma by a few.
She lives with her second eldest daughter, where she nurtures her vegetable garden. But she still cooks her favorite dishes of pinakbet and dinengdeng, familiar dinner plates in our largely vegetarian family.
