The 2015 Asia Pacific Writers’ and Translators’ International Conference came to a close last October 24, 2015, in the Grand Ballroom of the Buenaventura Garcia Paredes, O.P. Building in UST, with a museum tour; the farewell keynote lecture by Prof. Emeritus Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Director of the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS); the launching of her new book; the formal closing of the conference by Prof. Clarita D. Carillo, PhD, UST Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs; and a dinner hosted by the UST Rector Magnificus, the Rev. Fr. Herminio V. Dagohoy, O.P.
- AWPT and UST officials pose for a souvenir photo.
- Dr. Hidalgo (right) answers questions during the open forum moderated by Assoc. Prof. Ralph Galan.
The conference, which is held in a different Asian country each year, opened on October 22 in the University of the Philippines Diliman. Titled “Against the Grain: Dissidence, Dissonance and Difference in Asia-Pacific Writing and Translation,” it was attended by more than 100 writers from all over the world (including non-Asian countries), who presented papers, read from their work, participated in the lively discussions, and enjoyed the celebration of the literary arts.
Among the writers who attended the session were: Nury Vittachi, Chair of the APWT and Jane Camens, its Executive Director; Dr. Isagani Cruz, President of the Manila Times College and Prof. Emeritus of De La Salle University, and other members of the APWT Board; Dr. Lily Rose Tope, Chair of the UP Dept. of English & Comparative Literature and Conference Convener; Dr. Jose Y. Dalisay, Director of the UP Institute of Creative Writing; and Dr. Ronald Baytan of DLSU’s Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center.
Hidalgo’s lecture was titled “The Subversive Memory: Women Tell What Happened.” It took off from her new book, To Remember to Remember… Reflections on the Literary Memoirs of Filipino Women, which the author has described as “a bit of a mongrel—part creative nonfiction and part literary commentary.” The book is actually a narrative of her encounter with the memoirs of seven distinguished Filipina writers of literary memoirs belonging to three different generations: Paz Policarpio-Mendez, Solita Camara-Besa, Gilda Cordero-Fernando, Merlie M. Alunan, Jenny Ortuoste, Rica Bolipata-Santos, and Criselda Yabes.
Hidalgo’s latest work picks up from where her groundbreaking study of women’s autobiographical works left off—Filipino Woman Writing: Home and Exile in the Autobiographical Narratives of Ten Writers, first published by the Ateneo University Press in 1994. (The UST Publishing House released a new edition of the book in 2015.) Both books are significant in being practically the only such studies in this area of Philippine literature in English or in any language.
This year’s APWT Conference was sponsored by the support of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and UP, with the support of UST, DLSU, Anvil Publishing House, the British Council and the Japan Foundation.
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