UP frat to publish anthology of its writings

BEING the country’s oldest fraternity, the University of the Philippines’ Upsilon Sigma Phi, founded in 1918, has seen various historical personalities passing through its doors, and some have put down in black and white their thoughts and aspirations for the country and the academic community as well other topics.

Upsilon Sigma Phi, through its alumni association, will come out in 2017 with an anthology of the writings of its fellows since 1920 up the present time. The fraternity will celebrate its centennial in November 2018, and the book project is one of its activities.

The anthology will include poetry, essays, excerpts of novels, speeches, short stories, blogs or posts in social media.

It is Elmer Ordoñez’s brainchild, hatched in 2011 with Efren Yambot and Emmanuel Osorio. These three Upsilonians have contributed many literary works throughout their careers.

Ordoñez was UP professor of English, associate for literary criticism at the UP Creative Writing Center, and chair for projects of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Yambot wrote plays such as Macario Sakay, staged by the fraternity in 1971, and Bintao, on the life of Wenceslao Vinzons. Osorio was editorial writer in the defunct Action Now magazine, among other publications.

The book project will be launched on Sept. 18 in a gathering of fellows at Villamor Air Base officers’ clubhouse in time for the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the fraternity’s Batch ’70.