Ateneo Faculty and Alumni, Winners and Hall of Famers in the 72nd Palanca Awards

Several Ateneo faculty members and alumni were adjudged as winners for their literary works at the 72nd Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, held at the Philippine International Convention Center.  

Dubbed “the most prestigious and longest-running literary contest in the Philippines,” this year awarded 54 winners across 22 categories, such as short story, poetry, essay, one-act play, full-length play, short story for children, and poetry for children, in different Filipino languages. This year, the Novel in English and Nobela in Filipino categories were also opened. 

This year also saw four writers inducted into the Hall of Fame, a distinction given to an individual who has won five first-place awards in any category throughout their career. Of the four, two are alumni of Ateneo. 

Guelan Luarca, a member of the Fine Arts Department, also won three awards for his plays. “Corridors,” a full-length play in English, won First Prize, while “The Impossible Dream,” a one-act play in English, and “Ardor,” a full-length play in Filipino, were both adjudged Second Prize in their categories.

Ateneo alumnus Mikael de Lara Co also won First Prize in the Tula category for his collection “Panayam sa Abo.”

Luarca’s and Co’s first-place wins also inducted them this year into the elusive and prestigious Palanca Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile, two more Ateneans dominated the Filipino categories and three more for the English Division.

Among the winners in the Filipino Division are Adelle Liezl Chua who was awarded Third Prize in Sanaysay for “Love Child” and Rian Jay G. Hernandez, whose screenplay “Dobol” received Third Prize in the Dulang Pampelikula category. 

Atenean Palanca winners in the English division include Filipino Department chair Dr. Edgar Calabia Samar, who won two awards for the night: First Prize for Poetry Written for Children for his work “Every Year, J Gained a Power“, and Third Prize for “A Young Poet Dreams of a Hundred Words That Rhyme with Maynila” in the Short Story for Children category. Meanwhile, Ana Maria Segunda K. Lacuesta won Third Prize for Poetry for “We Are Not Yet Lost.”

Emilio Antonio Babao Guballa, who received his BFA in creative writing last 2019, took home the Third Prize for his full-length play in English “The Echoist,” which he wrote for his playwriting undergraduate thesis.