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| We had more than enough of those to consider for the awards, so much so that it took us a long time to debate over our choices, championing our favorites and dismissing those that raised our hackles. Judging the stories made me realize how limited my own taste can be, and how keen my women co-judges were to certain nuances that I overlooked in some stories. It was only later, after the deliberations, that we learned some of the eminent names of the authors in our shortlists�Azucena Grajo Uranza, Rosario Cruz Lucero, Charlson Ong, Angelo �Sarge� Lacuesta�proof that the magazine continues to attract established writers as well as the hot new ones emerging from creative writing classes and workshops. Proof again that, contrary to some critics who say literary writing in English is moribund or is a dying tradition, our literature in English continues to flourish. Paolo Manalo, the literary editor disqualified six stories, and that left us 32 short stories to read over the Christmas break. It so happens that there are no old fogeys in this year�s crop of judges, and so our choices reflect our age. We chose stories that were well-written, narratively compelling, and ones that chose risks or were even risqu�. And it was also only later, after the deliberation, that we realized all our winning authors happened to be gay. The first prize went to Bobby Flores Villasis for �Elegies From Another Book,� a story that perfectly captures (through fiction) the decadent ethos of Negros. Told in an elegant prose style, it teems with characters, achieving the density of a novel yet retaining the control of a short story. The story is about Jake, a college professor who tries to turn his back on the aristocratic Hispanic culture he came from, withall its preoccupation with social status and propriety. Resolutely gay and bohemian, Jake defies his background by teaching in a Protestant university and having an affair with Wayne, the Caucasian husband of one of his cousins. The story is a strange brew of social satire, gothic violence, and, yes, hot sex. But in the end, the story still manages to achieve tragic pathos. After his father dies, Jake goes back to the old house with two of his gay students. The last sentence reads: �We plan to make love until the sun streams in through the windows and all the ghosts have gone.� The story is a triumph of the art of story-telling; the sensory details wash over the reader as he gets sucked into the steamy, sweltering world depicted in the story and even smell and taste the sweat of lovemaking. I understand that this is not the first time that Bobby Villasis has won the award, and he has been writing about the same milieu in his fiction. If one tries to understand Negros from Bobby�s stories, one will see a world more sinister and sensual than the South created by Tennessee Williams. In him, Renato Madrid has become a pagan. You will either love or hate the 2nd prize-winning story �Higher Orders� by John Bengan. It is the kind of story that elicits extreme reactions from readers. One judge said she was �stunned� by it and wanted it to win 1st prize, while another judge found a lot of objectionable elements in it. The story is narrated by a rookie assassin, a young member of the Davao Death Squad, the group allegedly responsible for the extrajudicial killings of notorious drug pushers and drug lords in Mindanao. For sheer suspense and handling of action, the story was the most compelling to read in this year�s batch of stories. The assassination scene alone is as vivid as any action movie, but the moral resonances of the story cannot be captured by that medium. Andrea Pasion, one of the judges, commented: �[ � ]� The 3rd prize-winning story went to Danton Remoto for the coruscatingly hot story �The Heart of Summer.� For its delicateness and lyricism, the story is reminiscent of some coming of age stories by Kerima Polotan and Estrella Alfon, but this story becomes doubly poignant because the narrator is gay. Menchu Aquino, who found the story really cute, had this to say about it: �[�]� We do not claim that these three stories were �the best� ones published this year. Eight other stories were shortlisted, and many of them were just as good and effective, with memorable characters and originality of vision. There was the strange story of the female �electric man� who tampered with the electric meter of houses at night; there was the story of the appearance of the Virgin Mary�s apparition in the market of Pagadian; and there was the story of a woman who almost gets tempted to abscond with a signature leather bag in Paris. Stories and stories and stories, so well-written, so deserving to be read. Our country is a babel of stories, so much chismis from showbiz to the love affairs of politicians, but few of them get written down as fiction worth publishing in the pages of Free Press. If there was anything we learned from the passionate debates we had as judges, it was the confirmation of the fact that some tastes are shared, and some are not. Contests are just as good as the tastes of its judges, and we abide by our choices as a reflection of our tastes and prejudices. On behalf of my co-judges Menchu and Andrea, we would like to thank Free Press and the sponsors of the contest for making us experience the joy of reading some of the best stories that will mold the landscape of our country�s imagination. As practicing writers, we have been quickened and inspired by the thought that we are in good company, and we will continue to write with the notion that we are not alone, that stories beget stories, and that Free Press is the best venue for publishing them. |
| An Introduction to the Prize-Winning Stories |
| By Timothy Montes |
| Ah, the stories. |