Call for Pre-Registration for Philippine PEN Workshop on Teaching PH Literature

A Philippine PEN Civil Society Programme 2015-2017
22-23 August 2016, Monday-Tuesday, 9:00AM-4:30PM
F213, Second Floor, Finster Hall, Ateneo de Davao University, Roxas Avenue, Davao City

Focus: 21st Century Philippine Literature

The Philippine Center of International PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Novelists) has organized a series of literature teaching workshops across the country since 2011. Called For Love of the Word: Workshops on Teaching Philippine Literature in High School and College, this project is geared toward retooling and upgrading the skills of literature teachers in both secondary and tertiary levels. It is supported by PEN International, Clifford Chance Foundation, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). In 2011-2015, workshops were successfully held in Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, Baguio, Naga, Bohol, and Cagayan de Oro.

In the 2010 Cebu Congress, PEN passed a resolution to “work more closely with the education sector, its leaders, planners and administrators, its teachers and students, and the education publishing industry, to improve literature education in the country. The Philippine PEN recognizes that literary taste is shaped in the schools, especially the public school system; it is where generations must be taught to appreciate the outstanding works of our very own writers, works that constitute the soul of our nation.”

On August 22-23, PEN will partner with the Ateneo de Davao University and the literature teachers’ organization Samahan ng mga Guro ng Panitikan sa Davao (SAGUP) to hold the next teachers’ training workshop which will focus on 21st Century Literatures from the Philippines.

Resource speakers and workshop facilitators include: Dr. Ricardo De Ungria, eminent poet and professor of literature at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao; Dr. Isidoro M. Cruz, prize-winning writer and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Agustin-Iloilo; and Dr. Pamela Castrillo, scholar of Mindanao culture and professor of literature and language at Ateneo de Davao University.

As part of the program, a writers’ forum featuring Davao Writers Guild members and award-winning Davao-based intellectuals and writers who will read their work and talk about the topic “Writing to Sustain our Home, our Habitat.” Writers include Macario Tiu, Jhoanna Lynn Cruz, Dominique Cimafranca, among others.

There is no registration fee. Workshop materials and a certificate of participation will be given to each participant. Participants will have to take care of their own travel arrangements, accommodation, and meals.

For pre-registration, please submit the names of your participant/s and institution to PEN. You may email philippinepen@yahoo.com or text +639065267201 (contact person: Shirley Lua). Deadline for pre-registration: August 13, 2016.