Prize-winning Bikolano writer
launches new book
By Florencio P.
Narito
LEGAZPI CITY – Prize-winning Bicolano fiction writer Abdon M.
Balde Jr. of Busac, Oas, Albay had come all the way from Las Piñas
City to launch his fifth book “Calvary Road” at the Legazpi City
Museum last Feb. 13.
Balde’s “Hunyango Sa Bato” (2004) won the Juan C. Laya Prize for
the best novel in Pilipino.
His “Mayong” (2003), based on the legends surrounding Mayon
Volcano which includes legendary character like Daragang Magayon,
Pagtuga, Juan Osong, Maria Marikdat, Kulakog, Tilmag and “Supay”,
a collection of short stories won the National Book Award for
Fiction.
Balde’s other books include “Mga Pangarap at Pangitain” (2001), a
collection of 14 short stories about life in Bicol and in Manila,
“Sa Kagubatan ng Isang Lungsod” (2002) was a National Book Award
finalist.
Balde is a member of the Executive Council of the Committee on
National Language and Translation of the National Commission on
Culture and the Arts and a member of the Board of the Writers
Union of the Philippines.
In a brief interview with this writer Balde, a retired engineer by
profession, said that he never studied fiction writing in college
but he had learned the craft through self-study.
During the book launching, Balde recited a humorous “rawit-dawit,”
a poem in the Oasnon dialect. He was introduced by Daniel Pinto
who made the cover designs of his books.
Other Bicolano writers present during the affair included poet
Marne Kilates of Daraga, Albay who read some of his poems in
English, and Raffy Bazuela, a professor at Aquinas University of
Legazpi, who delighted his audience with his short story in Bikol
about the Rite of Passage.
Gody Calleja, a Bikolano writer based in Ottawa, Canada, came home
to encourage his fellow Bicolano writers to use the Bikol dialect
in their literary and journalistic usage. Calleja publishes a
journal on “rawit-dawit.”
Some of the books on exhibits were authored by Luis Cabalquinto of
Magarao, Camarines Sur (now US-based), Merlinda Bobis, Zeus
Salazar, Teresita Erestain, Elmer Ordoñez, Paz Verdades Santos,
and Luis Dery maong others.
The book launching coincided with the opening of a four-man art
exhibits by Peboi Selleza, Cesar Sarmiento, Nilo Asuncion and
Richard Perez, all Bicolano painters in the genre of Fernando
Amorsolo.
The affair was facilitated by Erlinda G. Belleza, curator of the
Legazpi City Museum.
