(From left) Former University of Santo Tomas (UST) Publishing House Director John Jack G. Wigley; poet Vijae Orquia Alquisola; playwright Em Mendez; poet and essayist Alice Sun-Cua; UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies (UST CCWLS) Director Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo; UST CCWLS fellow Ned Parfan; playwright Liza C. Magtoto; UST Publishing House Director Ma. Ailil B. Alvarez; Rev. Fr. Jesus M. Miranda Jr., O.P.; UST Publishing House Deputy Director Fermin Yabut; UST CCWLS Deputy Director Ralph Semino Galan and fellows Chuckberry Pascual and Dawn Laurente Marfil; Paul Castillo; and event host Ron Biñas pose for photos at the conclusion of the UST Publishing House Grand Book Launch on May 9. (Photo by Alvin I. Dacanay)
THE University of Santo Tomas (UST) Publishing House formally launched earlier this month the last book of a recently deceased National Artist for Literature and 17 others published last year in an annual event that reasserted its goal to become the Philippines’ “publisher of choice.”
In its grand book launch on May 9, the UST Publishing House unveiled the late National Artist Cirilo F. Bautista’s In Many Ways: Poems 2012–2016, which it described as “an inspired stretch of imagination” and the poems in it as “narrative transcriptions of social and personal experiences that have affected his views of humanity.”
The 76-year-old writer of The Trilogy of Saint Lazarus, who was officially conferred the National Artist title in April 2016, died of pneumonia, complicated by his muscular dystrophy, on May 6.
The publisher also launched Angelo R. Lacuesta’s Coral Cove and Other Stories, his fourth collection of short stories “that take place in the clouded past, the urgent present, and the dark future—yet all seem to happen in the same timeframe and state of mind,” and his wife Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta’s Hush Harbor: Poems, which Canadian poet Rachel Rose said “investigates the fraught love and power dynamics between men and women, colonizer and colonized.”
Also introduced are four debut single-author collections: playwrights Liza C. Magtoto’s Bienvenida de Soltera and Em Mendez’s Anagnorisis: Apat na Dula; and poets Vijae Orquia Alquisola’s Sa Mga Pansamantala; and Radney Ranario’s Paglusong: Mga Tula.
Jaime An Lim’s Auguries: Poems; Breaking Ground: Cebuano Women’s Writing, edited by Hope Sabanpan-Yu; Alice Sun-Cua’s Kissing Through a Handkerchief and Other Travel Tales; Edgar Samar’s Maskara’t Pambata: Malatulambuhay; Nicolas B. Pichay’s Maxie; Fausto B. Gomez, O.P.’s Mercy Love & Holiness; Cecilia Manguerra Brainard’s The Newspaper Widow; Pintacasi Vol. 8 by the UST Graduate School Center for the Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics; Soledad S. Reyes’ Retrieving the Past/Recuperating the Voice; Sustaining the Archipelago, edited by Rina Garcia Chua; and UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies director and former UST Publishing House Director Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo’s That Thing with Feathers: My Book of Memories completed the list of 2017 titles.
In her speech, UST Publishing House Director Ma. Ailil B. Alvarez said holding the annual launch “signifies that we are honoring our commitment to…a prestigious tradition” that started during the directorship of the late Michelin Manalastas more than 10 years ago.
The publishing house “still believes that this event presents our vision to produce and disseminate works of literary and scholarly merit,” she added, noting that the books launched were published during the time of her predecessor, author and UST professor John Jack G. Wigley.
“Our job, as an academic publisher, is to cater to the needs of learners, writers, researchers, literary enthusiasts, faculty, and students by providing them with quality materials,” Alvarez said.
“We do that by striving to become the publisher of choice of the country’s top scholars and writers,” she added.
The UST Publishing House was established in 1996 after the Santo Tomas University Press and the UST Printing Office were merged. It traces its roots to the UST Press, founded by Fr. Francisco de San Jose, O.P. in 1593, 18 years before the university was founded through the initiative of then-Manila Archbishop Miguel de Benavides, O.P.
Since its establishment, the publishing house won the National Book Awards’ Publisher of the Year honor in 2003, 2004, and 2011.
The post UST launches Bautista’s final book, 17 other titles appeared first on The Manila Times Online.