Kumustahan Creative Writing in the Philippines (The Philippine Writers Series 2024)

The essays in this book—arguably an inaugural moment in the field of “Philippine creative writing studies”—are written versions of the presentations given by the discussants at Kumustahan 2018 [a seminar, sponsored in Tagaytay by the Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing], representing writing traditions and communities across the following linguistic domains: Filipino, anglophone, Bikol, Kinaray-a and Hiligaynon, Waray, Cebuano or Binisaya, Ilokano and Tinguian, Pangasinan, and Kapampangan.… While English and Filipino were this seminar’s linguistic media, free rein was given to discussants to determine the manner and structure of their presentations, with the autobiographical narrative being the dominant form … A very clear realization we arrived at, as we listened to each other’s stories and reflections, is that as they operate, creative writing workshops in the Philippines presuppose and require “formalism”—the teaching of literary technique—but they also complicate and transce