Courageous, artistic’ novel on HIV-hit youth
EVERY so often we hear alarming reports of the increasing number of Filipinos who contracted the
(HIV). A staggering majority of those diagnosed are young men who have unprotected sex with other men. And despite government and private- sector efforts to raise awareness and promote safe sex, more and more people are still being tested positive for HIV — 1,047 new ones in August alone, according to one report in October.
It is such disturbing data that prompted Palanca award-winning author and publisher Segundo “Jun” Matias Jr. to write the young adult novel MgaBatangPoz (The Poz Boys) and have it published under Lampara Publishing House Inc., a major producer of children’s books.
Launched at the Precious Events Center in Quezon City in late September, MgaBatangPoz — “poz” is slang for ( HIV-) positive — is described as “an emotionally gripping account of four teenagers afflicted with HIV-AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)”—
Luis, Enzo, Gab and
“solace each other’s harrowing experiences” and ultimately “realize the beauty of life and friendship underneath the suffering.” “Nilalayonngproyektongito namakatulongupangunawain angkulturangkabataangmiyembro homophobiaatitigilang stigma samgapositibosa HIV (This book aims to help people understand the culture of LGBT [ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] youth, end homophobia and erase the stigma against HIV-positive people,” Matias said in a release. “Pangunahingnilalayonnitoang makatulongsakamulatanhinggil saHIVatAIDS,sang-ayonsamga bagongpananaliksikatestadistika ng Department of Health (Its main goal is to help raise awareness about HIV at AIDS in accordance with new Department of Health research and statistics),” he added.
Matias wrote MgaBatangPoz as his masteral thesis at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, and it was published within months after he successfully defended it — something that his adviser, 2009 Palanca Hall of Fame inductee and professor Eugene Y. Evasco, marveled at. “Angnobelangitoay isangsilip,hindilamang sakulturangkabataang kundirinsa “alter” THELiteraryLifepageof is nowacceptingcontributionsofnew,originalandunpublished preferablyinEnglish,fromemergingandestablished writers.WorksmustbeencodedinMicrosoftWordusing thetypefacesArial,TimesNewRoman,orPalatinoLinotype,
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Copies of are displayed during the launch. culture (This novel offers a peek, BatangPoz is a knife that slices into not only into the gay youth culture, our awareness, waking us up to but also the “alter” or alternative the truth that for every child who culture),” Evasco said in his contracts or dies from HIV, we are speech at the launch, referring to implicated).” a gay subculture on social media, Prize-winning playwright and especially Twitter, where men post filmmaker Chris Martinez said photos and videos of their experiences, masakitnamasarapbasahinang including intimate ones. nobelangito (this novel is painful
“Ito(MgaBatangPoz)ang yet delightful to read).” pinakamatapang,pinakamasining, For his part, Palanca awardwinning essayist Wilfredo Pascual samganalathalangayongtaon called Matias a “bold writer,” saying (MgaBatangPoz is the most courageous, that “in confronting the alarming artistic and important rate of HIV infection in the work among those published this country, he zeroes in on youth and year), “he added. social media, young lives about to
Evasco was not the only one who break into pieces.” praised the novel. Matias’ mentor, “He lays bare the various shadings
- of recklessness, the unexpected ist Ricky Lee, said in the release that comfort, the terror, the rage, “bawatpahinang Batang Poz ay - patalimnahumihiwasaatingkamalayan, nagkakaroonngHIVonamamatay, kasangkottayo (every page of Mga tions and real bliss,” he added. Mga Batang PozcostsP299.75 andisavailableinPreciousPages retailoutletsandleadingbookstores email lamparapublishinghouse@ gmail.com. andsavedineither.docor.rtfformat.Eachshortstory andcreativenonfictionpieceshouldbebetweenten(10) andtwenty(20)pages(double-spaced),whileeachpoem shouldbelimitedtoonlyone(1)page(single-spaced). Workslitteredwithglaringgrammaticalandtypographical theliteraryeditor,AlvinI.Dacanay,atliterarylife[at]