Krip Yuson wins National Book Award
The Philippine STAR’s art and culture columnist Alfred “Krip” A. Yuson’s novel The Music
Child & The Mahjong Queen has won the 2017 National Book Award for the Novel in English from the National Book Development Board of the Philippines and the Manila Critics Circle.
Published by Anvil Publications, Yuson’s third and latest novel was among the books released in 2016 that were honored at the 36th National Book Awards prize-giving ceremony held at the National Museum of Fine Arts auditorium on Dec. 2.
It gained the following citation: “Alfred A. Yuson’s The Music Child & The Mahjong Queen is an extravaganza of magical realism with a very refined touch of Filipino sensibility. Here he displays his beautiful control over the language and all its possibilities and shows us, yet again, that boundaries are meant to be breached — but beautifully.” Yuson’s previous novels are Great Philippine Jungle
Energy Cafe and Voyeurs & Savages. Other 2017 National Book Award winners are: Novel In Filipino — Charmaine Lasar’s Toto
O., PageJump Media; Short Fiction in English — Catherine Torres’ Mariposa Gang and Other Stories, University of Santo Tomas Publishing House; Short Fiction in Filipino — Alvin B. Yapan’s Sangkatauhan,
Sangkahayupan: Mga Kuwento, Ateneo de Manila University Press; Non-Fiction Prose in English — Raissa Robles’ Marcos Martial Law Never Again, Filipinos for a Better Philippines; Non-Fiction Prose in Filipino — Roque J. Ferriols, SJ’s Sulyap sa Aking
Pinanggalingan, AdMU Press; Poetry in English — Francis C. Macansantos’ Snail Fever: Poems of Two
Decades, University of the Philippines Press; Poetry in Filipino — Rowena P. Festin’s Banayad: Mga Tula, UP Press; Poetry in Waray — Victor N. Sugbo’s
Taburos Han Dagat, UP Press; Anthology (Bilingual): JPaul S. Manzanilla and Caroline S. Hau’s Remembering/Rethinking EDSA, Anvil; Anthology in Filipino — Christine S. Bellen’s
Batang Rizal at iba pang Dula, AdMU Press; Anthology in Waray — Merlie M. Alunan’s Susmaton: Oral Narratives of Leyte, AdMU Press; Graphic Literature — Bong Redila’s Meläg,Adarna House Inc.; Literary Criticism/ Literary History — Jose Wendell P. Capili’s Migrations and Mediations: The Emergence of Southeast Asian Diaspora Writers in Australia 1972-2007, UP Press; Essays — Jose Victor Torres’ To the People Sitting in Darkness... and Other Footnotes of Our Pasts, UST; Translation — Ramon Muzones and Maria Cecilia Locsin-Nava’s Shri-Bishaya, New Day Publishers; Non-Literary Division: Food — Edgie Polistico’s Philippine Food, Cooking, and Dining Dictionary, Anvil; History — Daniel F. Doeppers’ Feeding Manila in Peace and War, 1850-1945, AdMU Press; Science
— Amado C. Bajarias, Jr.’s A Field Guide to Flight: Identifying Birds on Three School Grounds, AdMU
Press; Social Sciences — Francisco J. Lara Jr. and Steven Schoofs’ Out of the Shadows: Violent Conflict and the Real Economy of Mindanao, AdMU Press; Journalism — Kenneth Roland A. Guda’s Peryodismo sa Bingit: Mga Naratibong Ulat sa Panahon ng Digmaan at Krisis, UP Press; Leisure — Joy LumawigBuensalido’s Pinoy Manners: A Modern Guide to Delicadeza for All Generations, Christine Jocelyn Buensalido; Professions — Pocholo Gonzales’ Gusto Kong Maging Voice Talent: Mga Sikreto sa Likod ng Dubbing, Voice-over at Voice Acting, PSICOM Publishing Inc.; Art — Nick Deocampo’s Eiga: Cinema in the
Philippines During World War II, Anvil; Language Studies — Papa Osmubal’s (Oscar Balajadia) Capampangan Roots, Holy Angel University Press; and Book Design — Karl Fredrick M. Castro’s Colonial Manila, 19091912, AdMU Press. Ateneo de Manila University Press won the Publisher of the Year award for having the most number of awardees at eight books.
This year’s trophy design, interpreted as an inverted ink drop representing a human figure reading a book, is by sculptor and poet Raul Funilas, a member of NeoAngono Artists Collective. He writes of his design: “In the form of an ink drop, the author’s wisdom drips into the pages of the book, engraved in every word that is written and flows into the reader’s mind.”