Road Map continues with Solstice

Through Tita Ayala’s brainchild publication, The Road Map Series, founded in 1981, a platform was created for emerging writers to publish their works alongside more established writers. There are three new road maps published for the second generation of Road Map: Elsewhere of Memory by Lia Lopez-Chua, Tungkol kay Angela by Joshua Lim So, and Solstice by Tita-Lacambra Ayala. The next Road Map will be spearheaded by Melona Grace Mascariñas.

Lia Lopez Chua is the first ever published poet of Road Map Series in "I am dressed I am not going anywhere." Born in Cebu, she moved to Davao to teach Philosophy and now considers it her home. Her poetry was what led Tita Lacambra-Ayala to materialize her vision of creating Road Map Series of which she is the current acting editor.

Solstice - A Collection of Poems by Tita Lacambra Ayala is the newest road map and was launched this Saturday (Feb. 23) at LitOrgy: Asterisks in Bloom.

Handpicked by Tita’s closest family and friends, the poems in Solstice are about life, death and all the living and loving in-between. Each poem includes the year Tita wrote it, to pinpoint a part of her life.

Tita Lacambra-Ayala (1931-2019) was a mentor for women artists of her generation, and asserted her need to write while raising a family with six children. She had often spoken about keeping a typewriter next to the kitchen, so that she could put down a few words while stirring a pot. She published many books of poetry in her distinguished career, including Sunflower Poems (1960) and Camels and Shapes of Darkness in a Time of Olives (1998); as well as prose, including Friends: The Adventures of a Professional Amateur (1998) and Pieces of String and Other Stories (1984).

Her work was recognized by numerous awards, including Palanca Awards for the short story “Everything” (1967), and the poem “A Filigree of Seasons” (1977). Her most recent book of poetry, Tala Mundi (2012), received a National Book Award for Poetry and a Philippine Literary Arts Council Prize, as well as Philippine Free Press, Focus and Graphic awards.

Ayala was also conferred the Fr. Theodore Daigler Award for Mindanao Culture for expanding Davao literature through her writing and for nurturing promising writers—then and now. She is survived by her daughters, Cynthia Alexander, Monica Ayala, and Laura Elizaga; sons Jose (Joey) Ayala and Fernando (Pido) Ayala, grandchildren and great grandchildren.