A photo of the titles launched at the Paglulunsad 2016. Photo by Jun Madrid.
“Our launching this afternoon is therefore a celebration not only of the mental and lifetime labor that each book embodies, but also of the material reality that the book essentially is—a reality that has undoubtedly transformed the humanity that in turn has transformed it, but that remains, throughout the millennia, paradoxically delicate and precarious in the face of the monumental responsibility it has come to bear in the history of human ingenuity,” said University of the Philippines Press Director Dr. J. Neil C. Garcia in his opening remarks on “The Love of Books” at the recent Paglulunsad.
Presenting 14 new titles, the University of the Philippines Press launched its newest offerings on May 27, 2016 at the Balay Kalinaw, UP Diliman.
Works by National Artists featured F. Sionil Jose’s “Selected Stories,” a compilation of twelve short stories based on memorable events of his personal experiences as a writer. Meanwhile, Cirilo Bautista’s twelfth book of poems, “Selected Poems”, were chosen by the poet himself from his literary body of works.
From the Natural Sciences, the third volume of “Science Philippines: Essays on Science by Filipinos edited by UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Gisela Concepcion” is now available.
The Humanities launched several books. “Performing Catholicism” by Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco is described by the UP Press as “. . . a reflection of the relationship between religion and theater. Particularly, it looks at the relationship of Catholicism and performance or the embodied world of theater in opposition to the written text. To illustrate the as/is in the relationship of Catholicism and performance, three Catholic rituals or cultural performances in the province of Pampanga are used as examples: pamamaku king krus, libad nang Apung Iru, and kuraldal nang Apung Lucia.”
UP System Assistant Vice President for Public Affairs Jose Wendell Capili launched “Migrations and Mediations: The Emergence of Southeast Asian Diaspora Writers in Australia, 1972-2007,” a book, according to UP Emeritus Professor Bienvenido Lumbera, “remarkable for its steady grasp of a unifying vision encompassing literary production by writers coming from disparate cultures and historical backgrounds, and establishing their significance as a factor in the construction of the contemporary cultural identity of Australia. . . .”
A group photo of the writers whose works were launched at the Paglulunsad. Photo by Jun Madrid.
Among the literary pieces, “Science Fiction: Filipino Fiction for Young Adults”, edited by Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu, offers “a second issue of a genre-anthology series for young adults that explores once more the concerns and issues of today’s youth through the lens of the science fiction genre,” according to UP Press.
Luna Sicat Cleto’s “Typewriter Altar” is a story of the power of recollection, remembrance, and redemption that provides a glimpse of an artist’s life. “The Axotol Colony” by Jamie An Lim presents in humor and irony the journey of a Chinese family living in the Philippines. “Snail Fever” by Francis Macansantos, a selection of poems taken from his works from 1997 to 2016, deals with the mystery and wonder of nature, the human mind and heart through a historical perspective.
The story of two great warriors Labaw Donggon and Masangladon in a fight to win the heart of the beautiful Matan-ayon as well as the whole sea journey to Lim-awun is told in “Kalampay” – by Alicia Magos, Federico Caballero and Anna Razel Ramirez. Weldon McCarty’s “Bamboo Bed” narrates the author’s life “in the immediate pre-Marcos and Martial law eras as he moved in and out of the country’s jails, at one point sharing the same prison cell as the historian William Henry Scott, while circulating in an impressive circle of Manila’s gangsters, artists, ex-rebels, bohemians, drug addicts, politicians and assorted cognoscenti,” according to UP Press.
Charlson Ong in “Of That Other Country We Now Speak and Other Stories” writes of “a troubled father who seeks to heal his daughter by confronting private and ancestral ghosts; a former priest regains his vocation by rescuing a woman from a sex cult; an unrequited lover uses a dog as his murder weapon; a corrupt banker seeks redemption among the prayerful inside a booze bar as the ‘end of the world’ approaches that depict a world fraying at the seams, morally adrift.”
Trixie Alano Reguyal said that her book, “Bohemian Rhapsody of Two Places”, is comprised of “essays that attempt to understand the idea of attempting, of sketching out stories and trying to unspool their significance.” Rolando Tolentino’s “Araw/Gabi: Mga Aporismo ng Pakautal at Pagkaulol” is a collection of aphorisms collected from the author’s Twitter entries. He uses social media, particularly Twitter, as a new source and platform to relay human experience and its significance to society.
For more photos of the event, please click through the photo album below.
