Taboan Writers’ Festival set in La Union Nov. 27-29
BAUANG, La Union — Hundreds of writers and lieterary teachers are expected to attend this year’s Taboan Writers Festival from November 27 to 29 at the Marand Resort Hotel in Barangay Baccuit Sur here.
According to Dr. Juliet C. Mallare, the festival director and member of the National Committee on Literary Arts (NCLA), the Taboan Writers Festival, which will be held in Northern Luzon for the first time, is supported by the Bauang local government unit.
The NCLA is one of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) 19 national sub-committees.
“Aside from the budding national and local literary writers, we invited as participants all the teachers of creative writing in La Union during the festival as we want them to be exposed to lectures on how to teach literature and writings on poetry, short story, and drama,” Mallari said.
‘Taboan’, a Visayan word which means marketplace, was launched in the National Capital Region (NCR) in 2009, aimed at promoting Filipino culture, history and literary arts.
The Taboan Writers’ Festival, a flagship program of the NCCA, is a three-day annual gathering of writers, readers, scholars, researchers, and passionate to Philippine literature, from all over the country.
“The groups of Filipino writers had chosen Taboan as the theme of the festival to establish a marketplace of ideas, and the trade of ideas with the audience about literature and cultures aside from lectures and discussions,” Mallare said.
“We realized the conduct of the Taboan Festival for the first time in Northern Luzon specifically in Bauang, La Union as a tribute to Manuel E. Arguilla, a national literary icon with his famous short story masterpiece: How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife,” she added.
This year’s Taboan Festival anchored with a theme: “Bagong Likha, Dangal ng Bansa.”
On November 27, keynote addresses will be delivered by Bienvenido Lumbera, Butch Dalisay and Manix Abrera, who will discuss the Humor and Resilience in the Philippine Literature.