AdNU faculty, alumni shine in 27th National Book Award

Books by alumni of this University were named the best books of 2007 in their respective fields during the National Book Award ceremony held at the Yuchengco Museum in Makati City last November 15, this year.

These include Antisipasyon asin iba pang Rawitdawit sa Bikol asin Ingles in Poetry, by Victor Dennis T. Nierva, a faculty member of the Media Studies department;  A Living Constitution: The Troubled Arroyo Presidency, in Law, by Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas SJ; and Tongues on Fire, by Conrado de Quiros in Essay/Creative Nonfiction.

Nierva's book was one of three other winners in the poetry category, namely, Edgar Maranan's Passages: 1983-2006,  and Mostly in Monsoon Weather: Poems New & Revisited by Marne I. Kilates, who along with H. Francisco V. Penones Jr., also an Ateneo alumni, translated Nierva's poems into English.

Danton Remoto of the Manila Critics Circle, which co-sponsors the annual award with the National Book Development Board, cited the "lapidary quality" of  Nierva's poetry.

"Images of the poet's  Bicol Region are luxuriant in this book. They are memories, presences, and forebodings. But always, the poet's pen is restrained, the images and lines chiseled. This is a young poet's book, but some of the poems in this collection – whether in their original Bikol or translated into English – are already some of the best poems of his generation," said Remoto, who teaches at the Ateneo de Manila University and trace a Bikol root himself in Oas, Albay.

Another Atenean, New York-based Luis Cabalquinto's Mannahatta Mahal, was also a finalist in the poetry category along with Ateneo faculty member, Kristian Cordero's Pusuanon.