Kritika Kultura, the international refereed journal of language, literary, and cultural studies of the Department of English, Ateneo de Manila University, in cooperation with the Rizal Library, will be hosting a reading and lecture by novelists Dr. Edgar Calabia Samar and Allan Derain on August 18, 2014, 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at the 5th floor of the new Rizal Library.
Award winners both, Samar and Derain teach literature and creative writing at the Kagawaran ng Filipino, Ateneo de Manila University.
Samar has won prizes from the Palanca, PBBY-Salanga Writer’s Prize, Gantimpalang Collantes, Gawad Komisyon sa Tula, NCCA Writer’s Prize, and the National Book Award. His books includeUuwi na ang Nanay Kong si Darna!, Pag-aabang sa Kundiman: Isang Tulambuhay, Walong Diwata ng Pagkahulog, Sa Kasunod ng 909, Halos Isang Buhay: Ang Manananggal sa Pagsusulat ng Nobela, and Eight Muses of the Fall (Anvil Publishing, 2013), a translation into English of his first novel, and consequently long listed in 2009 Man Asian Literary Prize. His two novels received the Outstanding Scholarly Work from the Ateneo de Manila. This year, Adarna House has began releasing his young adult novel series with Si Janus Sílang at ang Tiyanak ng Tábon. He is a member of the Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo (LIRA), Naratibo, and the Filipinas Institute of Translation (FIT). He is the founding editor of Tapat: Journal ng Bagong Nobelang Filipino, was a former director of the Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices, and was writer-in-residence of International Writing Program of the University of Iowa in 2010.
Derain is the author of the short story collection Iskrapbuk (U of the Philippines Press,2005) and Ang Banal na Aklat ng mga Kumag(Cacho Publishing, 2013), which won the Palanca Memorial Award Grand Prize for the Filipino Novel in 2011 and was a recipient of the Outstanding Scholarly Work from the Ateneo de Manila University. He has won other prizes from the Palancas and published his other works in Aklat Likhaan ng mga Tula at Kuwento (Institute of Creative Writing, University of the Philippines, Diliman), Lagda (Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas, University of the Philippines Diliman),Malay (De La Salle University, Manila), Kule (University of the Philippines Diliman), Heights (Ateneo), and Liwayway Magazine. He is currently the moderator of Heights and Naratibo, an organizsation of fictionists. Aside from teaching and writing, he also dabbles in illustrating and researching on the aswang.
Kalatas: Philippine Literature, Culture, and Ideas 