Tony Perez is the first Filipino writer whose fiction oeuvre I devoured when I was in college. To learn about the forthcoming release of his latest novel, Si Crispin, revived the excitement I felt when I first came across his Cubao series more than a decade ago. When I asked for his permission to post the cover of the book here, he told me that, "There is a subliminal message here, though. 'Tony Perez Si Crispin' is a sentence in and of itself."

Miguel Syjuco talked here about his desire to have Ilustrado published in Tagalog. You can read the Asia Society article here. (Not really "news," because the interview is almost a year old, but what Syjuco had to say about the necessity of having his work translated in the vernacular remains news worthy.)

Benjamin Pimentel, author of Mga Gerilya sa Powell St., covered the fiesta that was the first Filipino American International Book Festival. One thing he noted that is relevant to the Filipino novel: "One thing I liked about the tribute was that it brought together literary figures known to many Filipinos in the Philippines and the U.S. — Carlos Bulosan, Nick Joaquin, Bienvenido Santos, Jose Garcia Villa, NVM Gonzalez, F. Sionil Jose — and those who may not be well known to readers in the Philippines, but are certainly worth recognizing as among the writers who have helped enrich the Filipino story."

Spot the Amapola sign: this is the latest update at the Facebook page dedicated to the much-awaited second novel of Ricky Lee, Si Amapola sa 65 Kabanata. The book will be launched on November 27, 4PM at Sky Dome in SM North Edsa.

1. Dark chocolate cupcakes with Pinoy komiks heroes on top of them--what do you think? Included above are komiks creations by Mars Ravelo, Carlo J. Caparas, Carlo Vergara and Budjette Tan. Visit The Regali Kitchen for more cake surprises.

2. Ambeth Ocampo wrote about the Philippine History in San Franciso, and he began with this note: "I looked out the window and saw the skyline that reminded me of Bienvenido Santos and his 1987 novel What the hell for, you left your heart in San Francisco?" If I remember my personal history of reading correctly, Santos is the first Filipino novelist in English I read, with his The Praying Man. Maybe I should feature some of his works here in Atisan. 

1. Josel Nicolas, known for his komiks Windmills, part 4 of which will be released at Komikon in November, was interviewed for Work In Progress' pilot podcast. You can listen to the first part of the interview here, and to the second part here. You can also download his books online for free, including Windmills Bearkdowns, Windmills 2: Bear Bong, and Windmills 3: Bear in Mind. Nicolas' first graphic novel in Filipino is Eye Sus, which you can also download for free. Among other things, Nicolas recognized reading Gerry Alanguilan's Wasted as catalyst to his own komiks-writing.

2. Two Pulitzer Prize winners, Junot Diaz and Edward P. Jones, will attend the 2nd Manila International Literary Festival from Nov. 16 to 18 at the Ayala Museum in Makati City. This year’s theme is “The Great Philippine Book Café"; it clearly echoes The Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café, a novel by Alfred Yuson that I enjoyed reading back when Atisan Novels was in hibernation. I still need to write my essay on it. Meanwhile, I wrote about Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao back when Atisan Novels was yet to focus on Filipino novels.

 
3. Robin Lim, a Filipino novelist based in Bali, Indonesia and author of Butterfly People is nominated for the CNN Hero of the Year. Although her being a novelist is not the focus of her being included in the list, it still fascinates how the intersection of novel-writing and heroism remains relevant since Rizal. Now, however, heroism is an award, and you can vote for your hero. If you believe in Lim, you can vote for her at the CNN website.

1. Ruel S. De Vera listed Sunday Inquirer Magazine's "five best debut novel for 2011" in yesterday's issue. The closest thing to a Filipino title in the list is Moondogs by Alexander Yates, a novel set in the Philippines with "bizarre but utterly Filipino characters."

2. The Philippine Star posted a movie poster of the film adaptation of a komiks novel by Pablo Gomez serialized in Tagalog Klasiks, Sugat sa Balikat.


3. Oggs Cruz reviewed the film Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me, based on Eros Atalia's novel of the same title, for Twitch. I haven't seen the film yet, and I realized I haven't even read the novel yet (although I've read Atalia's first two books, and I even wrote a blurb for his second book) and I've yet to feature Atalia's works in this site. Cruz, meanwhile, did not think positively of the film, noting how it failed to "convince its audience that there is something more to the seductive sex talk, to the lousily staged sex scenes, to the humorous stabs at the suddenly lopsided roles of young Filipino men and women when it comes to sex, to the never-ending supply of colloquial wit, to the endless and tedious monologues."

1. Amazon launches The All-New Kindle Family campaign with Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch, to be released on November 15 and November 22, respectively. Fire is colored, works much like the Ipad, and is priced at $199. Touch has the same E-ink technology which the old Kindle had, only in a new sleek design with multi-touch functionality; it is priced at $99. The old Kindle is now selling at $79 (I bought mine for $139, less than a year ago), and I'm wondering how many people who are still holding on to their hardcovers and paperbacks would consider this price reasonable enough to finally give in to their curiosity. Reading novels in a Kindle is a different kind of experience, certainly. For someone like me who always wants to bring several books with him, its convenience sometimes outweighs my nostalgia for the paper. 

2. Speaking of ebooks, you must know that many Filipino titles are now available in ebook formats at the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites via Flipside Digital Content. Last July, I received these ebooks as gifts from them: Tabi Po: Book 1 by Mervin Malonzo, Kubori Kikiam: Strips for the Soul #1 by Michael David, and The Long Weekend by Adam David. Most of the titles so far are criticism and essay or short story collections written in English. I'm hoping they'll have a wider selection of novel titles, and works in Filipino, in the future. For now, you can buy Karl R. De Mesa's News of the Shaman: Four Novellas of Horror, a book I already have in paperback, and is now in my long list of to-read titles.

3. Budjette Tan and KaJo Baldisimo's Trese 4: Last Seen After Midnight will be launched on October 8, 5 PM at Bestsellers, Robinsons Galleria. I made a review of the first three Trese books last year and I'm quite excited to get myself a copy of the latest book, which contained four cases:


I might even include the whole series in the syllabus of an elective class I'm gonna teach next semester: a history of the Filipino novel with a special focus on intersections of crime and gender.

1. Atisan Novels is back and beginning today, I'll try to post Filipino-novel news daily. When you missed some updates in the future, you can easily browse previous news from our link above labeled as News. We'll also have a section called 99 Words where I'll write my thoughts on the Filipino novel--mostly from the title I'm currently reading--in less than 100 words per entry. I'm hoping for 99 Words to make me write more often; I'm also hoping for it to make you come and visit the site regularly. Entries in this section might eventually be revised for the longer essay that I'll write on each novel I read.

2. 30th National Book Awards. The National Book Development Board (NBDB) and the Manila Critics Circle announced their finalists for the 30th National Book Awards. For the Fiction Category, four novels are nominated: Blue Angel, White Shadow: A Novel by Charlson Ong, Below the Crying Mountain by Criselda Yabes, Gun Dealers' Daughter by Gina Apostol, and Lumbay ng Dila by Genevieve L. Asenjo. Of the four, only Asenjo's novel had been reviewed here; I hope to finish reading the other three novels before the awarding ceremonies on November 12. (But you can read my thoughts on Apostol's first novel, Bibliolepsy, here. I've also read her The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata almost a year ago but I've yet to write a review.) I'd also like to mention that Banaag at Sikat: Metakritisismo at Antolohiya, Maria Luisa Torres Reyes' study of criticisms of Lope K. Santos' Banaag at Sikat is also nominated for the Literary Criticism/ Literary History Category.

3. Moondogs by Alexander Yates. There's an article in today's Manila Bulletin on Moondogs, the debut novel of an American novelist who grew up in the Philippines, Alexander Yates, and who was shocked to learn that "the Philippines is not more visible in the American popular imagination." The novel is set in Manila, the place that Yates considered home, and  is supposed to give off some "FPJ and Manny Villar vibes." I already got a copy of the book in my Kindle and I'm gonna give its "obsessions with superheroes and evil chickens" a shot pretty soon.