The Literary Medallists

Updated 12:03pm (Mla time) Sept 05, 2004
By SIM Staff
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page Q1 of the September 5, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

IT IS the day of the gathering, this first day of the ninth month, a time for revelation, celebration and evolution. On September 1, Philippine literature takes its next step forward when the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature are handed out at the Peninsula Manila's Rigodon Ballroom. The Palanca Awards night brings into focus the ingredients for all who desire to write: the nights of rewriting, the quest for inspiration and the race to beat the April 30 deadline. It is an opportunity to honor those who have imagined faster, higher and stronger, those who have received the gold, silver and bronze medals of the written craft. After all, laurel wreaths are not just for athletes. It is a time to honor past celebrants, including those who had previously appeared in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine's pages, such as Nicolas Pichay, Victoria Bravo, Lourd Ernest de Veyra, Angelo V. Suarez, Socorro Villanueva, and Eugene Y. Evasco. And it is a time for the recognition of new talent as well, with 31 first-time awardees. Now, SIM parades eight winners as we provide the fanfare for our writers and the passion that keeps them dreaming.


ESSAY
First Prize: "Devotion" by Wilfredo Pascual, Jr.
Second Prize: "Confessions of a Space Boy" by Erwin Romulo
Third Prize: "Surviving the Zeroes" by Jose Maria G. Alarilla