Ateneo University Press named Publisher of the Year at the 40th National Book Awards

For the fifth consecutive year, the Ateneo de Manila University Press was named Publisher of the Year at the 40th National Book Awards, which took place on 13 May 2023 at the Manila Metropolitan Theater. 

This announcement comes after 16 titles from the press were announced as finalists for the 40th National Book Awards, an annual prize that honors “the most prestigious book titles written, designed, and published in the Philippines.”

The winners from the 16 titles are as follow: 

Best Novel in Filipino

Aswanglaut by Allan N Derain

Best Book of Literary Criticism/Cultural Studies in English

Campaigns of Knowledge: U.S. Pedagogies of Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan by Malini Johar Schueller

Best Book on Media Studies

Hindi Nangyari Dahil Wala sa Social Media: Interogasyon ng Kulturang New Media sa Pilipinas by Rolando B Tolentino, Vladimeir B Gonzales, & Laurence Marvin S Castillo

Philippine Literary Arts Council Prize for Best Book of Poetry in English 

College Boy by Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta

Alfonso T Ongpin Prize for Best Book on Art 

Endangered Splendor: Manila’s Architectural Heritage, 1571-1960 (Volume 1 The Center: Intramuros, Binondo, San Nicolas, Tondo) by Fernando Zialcita and Erik Akpedonu, with Victor S Venida

Elfren S. Cruz Prize for Best Book in the Social Sciences 

The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed by Robin Broad & John Cavanagh

Best Book in Philosophy

Repentance and Rebirth at the End of Life as We Know It by Agustin Martin G Rodriguez

Best Book Design 

Endangered Splendor: Manila’s Architectural Heritage, 1571-1960 (Volume 1 The Center: Intramuros, Binondo, San Nicolas, Tondo), cover design, book design, layout, and artistic direction by Ali Figueroa & Erik Akpedonu; written by Fernando Zialcita and Erik Akpedonu, Victor S Venida

Maria Karina A Bolasco, director of the Ateneo University Press, was also conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Credited for encouraging writers, both unknown and established, to keep writing and keep publishing, Karina is described by Neni Sta Romana Cruz to be a “consummate publisher” who has won Publisher of the Year awards both for her stint in Anvil Publishing as well as for the Ateneo University Press. 

Cruz continues: “We are grateful to Karina for blazing new trails in publishing so that books by Filipino authors and illustrators and book designers in various genres and popular topics became well known and recognized and enjoyed by readers here and abroad […] Thank you, Karina, for all you have done to promote Philippine books and readership. It has not been an easy nor painless journey, but all your initiatives are inspiring and so gratefully acknowledged—and have certainly been a significant leap for the industry.”

Congratulations!