Writers group Bathalad-Sugbo, in partnership with the Libulan Queer Collective, a writers bloc of queer poets, essayists, fictionists, and playwrights from the southern Philippines, is now accepting applications for the 2nd Kagis Creative Writers’ Workshop to be held from April 21 to 22 at Handuraw Pizza, White Gold Annex Building, White Gold Club, North Reclamation Area in Cebu City. This year, 12 fellowships are available to emerging writers from Visayas and Mindanao. Non-Cebu-based applicants, if selected, shall shoulder the expenses entailed by food, accommodation, and transportation during the duration of the event. The fellows will be provided with food and workshop materials. The workshop’s screening committee shall also choose 10 observers from the shortlisted applicants to witness and engage in the workshop. The panelists for this year’s workshop are poet Vicente ‘Butch’ Bandillo, fictionist-essayist Richel G Dorotan, screenwriter-fictionist CD Borden, and fictionist Carlos Cortes. Other writers from the South will also serve as guest panelists and lecturers. To be considered, submissions in Sugboanong Binisaya and/or English must consist of any of the following:
  • Poetry: a suite of five poems;
  • Fiction: one short story or three works of flash fiction;
  • Creative nonfiction: one creative nonfiction or three works of flash nonfiction;
  • Drama: one one-act play
All manuscripts should be previously unpublished and have not been included in creative writing thesis. Alumni of any national writers’ workshop are not eligible to apply. The general theme for works to be submitted this year is on the ‘ecocritical’—works that discuss climate change, global warming, and natural/man-made disasters in the locale; affinity to rural/urban homelands; and individualized/collective displacement narratives in the aftermaths—but is not confined only to these themes. Applicants may send in (1) manuscripts in MS Word format (font Arial or Times New Roman, size 12, double-spaced on 8.5 x 11 bond paper), (2) comprehensive curriculum vitae (which should indicate applicant’s active mobile number, permanent and home address, educational background, and birth date), (3) one-page narrative of forthcoming and/or ongoing literary projects in school or community, and (4) one-page essay answering the question “Why do you write?” Send submissions with subject “KAGIS_LastName_ MI_FirstName_Genre” (example: KAGIS_Dela Cruz_H_Juan_Creative nonfiction) to kagisworkshop@gmail.com on or before 16 March 2018. Incomplete applications will not be considered. For inquiries from applicants, interested partners and sponsors, the workshop coordinators Kevin Lagunda and R Joseph Dazo may be reached through the same email. (pr)