Philippine American Literary House

19/08/2024

2024 NEWS Updates of PALH (Philippine American Literary House)

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2024/08/2024-news-updates-of-palh-philippine.html

PALH is proud to announce that some of its titles will be showcased at the 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair including:

A River, One-Woman Deep: Stories by Linda Ty-Casper (also published by UST Ph)
Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: Remembering Leonard Ralph Casper by Linda Ty-Casper (also published by the Ateneo de Manila)
Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories by Veronica Montes (also published by UST Ph)
Magdalena by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (also published by UST Ph)
The Newspaper Widow by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (also published by UST Ph)
Selected Short Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (also published by UST Ph)

Please continue reading in the blog link. Thank you. Or scan QR Code for catalogue and information.

16/08/2024

To those who missed it, Linda Ty-Casper's book about her husband, which she refers to as "Len's Memoirs" has an Ateneo de Manila edition, aside from the US Edition by PALH. The book is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, as well as from vending outlets of the Ateneo de Manila.

Following is the book review by Joel Pablo Salud of WILL YOU HAPPEN, PAST THE SILENCE, THROUGH THE DARK: REMEMBERING LEONARD RALPH CASPER:

Book review for SANTELMO: Liwanag Sa Dilim ( #7, Sept. 21, 2022)

Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: A Life in Letters
By Joel Pablo Salud

To write an analysis “so candid as to seem uncaring”.
I’ve read that line in In Burning Ambush: Essays 1985-1990, my first and, regrettably, only introduction to the works of author Leonard Casper. I had stumbled on a copy in a secondhand section of a bookstore whose name I cannot now recall, for a price much too bargain-basement for its hidden gems.

Casper, it would be safe to say, was one of my earliest influences in writing the essay. It’s a station he continues to share with four other authors whose nonfiction prose have nourished me in the early years: Alfred “Krip” Yuson, Sylvia Mayuga, Rosario Garcellano, and National Artist for Literature Cirilo Bautista.
They are my core encouragements, my pentangular spurs to a career spun across close to 40 years. But it was Casper who has, to this day, remained but a mere shadow, until Cecilia Brainard (author of When the Rainbow Goddess Wept and The Newspaper Widow, among others) requested that I look into a manuscript Linda Ty-Casper has written on her husband, Len.
In the Preface, Linda Casper writes:

“This book is the Memoir that Len did not get to write. But the letters he wrote actually are his Memoir, evoking a life, the work that nurtured that life, the yearning for meaning that led to the creation of that essential self through his writings – plays, poems short stories, critical essays; through his planting trees and shrubs along the Sudbury River where we lived for over 60 years; through the carefully chosen trips to reconnect with memory and realize dreams. Len chose a life and a world in which to live it; became who he wanted to be.”

Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: Remembering Leonard Casper begins as any good memoir ought to start: a controlled snapshot of a moment in time, shaped in ways that only a seasoned storyteller can:

“First, in a box of old pictures, there was the photo I don’t recall seeing: Len against a field, dated 1952. It could not have been taken in the Philippines, since he came in 1953, a month after Nanay, Gabriela Paez Viardo, my grandmother died, so they never met. They would have liked each other. Nanay told stories of the revolution against Spain, the war with the Americans; saying, ‘Someone should write these stories.’”
My being lured into the story was instantaneous. All it took was a sense of mystery, of a time and a photograph less likely to have any value to the reader save for its undying historicity. Talk of revolution, of war, of the colonials, of grandmothers holding long-kept secrets, were always a matter of great expectations to me story-wise. It reminded me of a memoir penned by my Latin American favorites, Gabriel García Márquez, in particular, whose little more than personal accounts of his life seeded much of his fiction.
Linda Ty Casper’s inclusion of the correspondences by Leonard Casper was everything but a dry recollection of now irrelevant thoughts. In fact, I find them significant in a memoir largely focused on the author’s writing life. Linda Casper writes:
“This recollection of Len’s life, overlapping at times, is a rumination. The letters show a life lived not in the isolation of academe, but one ever opening into fullness: countless connections that deepened into an inner life which shaped the work, enriched daily existence: perhaps, what continues into eternity, endless time, and timeless space.”
Leonard’s exchanges with American poet and literary critic Robert Penn Warren were so forthright and honest that any writer who would read them, and look back at his or her own life, may find necessary comfort in Leonard’s words:
“I have had a novel and a book poetry rejected too many times to care for wishful thinking. But these are the facts and I’m sure you can be even more unimpressed by them than I…” (March 10, 1953).
Without falling into the temptation of being a spoiler, I quote here Warren’s letter to Casper five years later in 1958: “Dear Mr. Casper, Yes, I have learned that Random House will not do your book – through I know that Erskine was greatly impressed by your quality as critic and writer. I imagine that it is the sort of thing which a university press will have to do – and what’s wrong with that?”
The choice of the right publisher and timing do come into play when thinking of publishing a book, and by August, Warren’s words proved him right. The University of Washington had finally agreed to come out with Leonard Casper’s book.

Leonard Casper would later write of Warren – in his book Robert Penn Warren: The Dark and Bloody Ground (Ford Foundation / University of Washington Press) – and bring to fore such ideas that people today need to hear:
“Violence is read not as melodramatic gesture but sometimes as the ironic outcome of attitudes of self-appointed innocents, those who elect themselves by self-righteous damnation of other; and always as the living shape of mutable identity / Warren does not share the Jeffersonian myth of human perfectibility; but everything he has ever written defends a faith in the possibility of human redemption, through acceptance of responsibility for one’s acts, even those long past, and vicariously for the acts of others.”
What, to me, remains intriguing was Leonard Casper’s withdrawal from a scholarship awarded by the Fulbright Committee and the Institute of International Education. The letter dated August 1, 1949 was heartbreaking to read, but simultaneously liberating for one reason: the possibility and presence of an honest man.
“Someone who deserves it more and who can benefit others and himself more by it, has the scholarship now… I think my greatest regret in having to refuse the Fulbright scholarship lay in the knowledge that it would be sort of a betrayal of those who had recommended me. I hope that you will forgive me for being honest too late.”
Leonard Casper, for everyone’s information, taught at the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila, including Philippine Normal College. His last visit to the country was in 1996 where he presented a paper at the Bicentennial of the Philippine Revolution in Manila. His stay had opened doors for him to build personal relationships with many a Filipino author, including Silliman University’s Edilberto and Edith Teimpo. Where friends find comfort in each other’s encouragement, in the world of letters,
such “encouragements” between friends come sometimes in rather harsh tones. Edilberto Tiempo’s letter to Leonard Casper dated January 26, 1974 was indicative of the candor friends in the literary community enjoy:
“Do you have a review of To Be Free?... I’m interested in your opinion especially because you were quite harsh on my first two novels. Frankly, Len, I couldn’t read any edition of Watch in the Night (or Cry Slaughter by Edilberto Tiempo), I have been embarrassed by that novel.”
Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: Remembering Leonard Casper is a treasure trove of charms and jewels for those like me who find Leonard Casper

a bit of a cryptic, enigmatic figure. Linda Ty-Casper has done a great service by shedding light on Len’s memory, allowing us a voyeur’s look into a life dedicated to the magic and unease found in letters.
I am sure this book will remain relevant for decades to come.

14/08/2024

Many thanks to the students and teachers who have used Growing Up Filipino in their summer reading!

The 3 books about GROWING UP FILIPINO are featured here: Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults; Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults...

12/08/2024

FUNDAMENTALS OF CREATIVE WRITING a how-to-write book by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is now available on Kindle - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGGTR6N

It is also available on Tolino, Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, and more ebook servers.

The paperback will be available after September 1, 2024 on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.Org and other online booksellers. For more information, contact [email protected].

09/08/2024

World Literature Today's writeup re Linda Ty-Casper's A River, One-Woman Deep: Stories - available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshopdotorg.

07/08/2024

PALH is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of FUNDAMENTALS OF CREATIVE WRITING, Revised and Expanded Edition by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard. The new book will be available in September 2024 in Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The book's description follows:

Fundamentals of Creative Writing, Revised and Expanded Edition is a practical how-to-write book that can be used as a text book or it can be read by those interested in learning how to write. The author Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, an award-winning fiction writer, who taught for over 25 years at UCLA Extension’s Writers Program and other universities, shares all the tools needed to write fiction and creative non-fiction. She breaks down the basic elements of creative writing such as setting, scene, character, conflict, dialogue, plot, and so on into sections. Each section starts with a concept, followed by related exercises, and a story or two to illustrate the creative writing component just discussed.

This book includes the author’s advice to beginning writers, and a lengthy interview of the author, in which the author discusses her background, what got her started in writing, the struggles she faced, her development as a writer. She also discusses the genesis of some of her stories including her three novels.

The author’s no-nonsense approach makes this book useful to many instructors of Creative Writing who will appreciate the straightforward guidance, writing activities, and complementary stories in the book. This book, Fundamentals of Creative Writing, Revised and Expanded Edition offers more information to demystify and explain the writing process thus enhancing the learning experience of the beginning writer.

An earlier slimmer edition, Fundamentals of Creative Writing, was published by Anvil in the Philippines and is out of print. This Revised and Expanded edition will be welcomed by the many teachers who used Brainard's how-to-write book in their classrooms.

29/07/2024

For the summer reading of your children:
ASIAN AND PHILIPPINE FOLKTALES contains retellings of beloved Asian and Philippine folktales as retold by members of PAWWA (Philippine American Women Writers and Artists), a small group of Filipina writers who had published these stories in two books. This collection includes 25 stories from places such as Laos, Japan, Korea, Sumatra, Vietnam, China, Bali, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines. The book's target audience is 8 and older.

You can find the book easily in Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716261

PAWWA was founded in 1991 by a group of seven Filipina writers in Southern California. It was the first such support group for Filipina women writers. PAWWA's founding members are: Valorie Slaughter Bejarano, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Mariquita Athena Davison, Fe Panalingan Koons, Susan N. Montepio, Cecile Caguingin Ochoa, and Nentuzka C. Villamar.

For six years, PAWWA received the highly competitive Multicultural Entry Grant from the California Arts Council (CAC), which PAWWA used to publish newsletters and books. When PAWWA's CAC funding ran out in June 1998, the remaining members of PAWWA decided to move on, and PAWWA was dissolved.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

These stories unlock a storehouse of cultural knowledge – of lessons learned from tapestries of words. Parents, children, and educators and all others who love “old-time stories” will enjoy this collection.” Herminia Meñez Coben, Folklorist, Author of Explorations in Philippine Folklore and Verbal Arts in Philippine Indigenous Communities: Poetics, Society, and History.

What a wonderful book! I know that when I read them to my grandchildren, I will also be that little girl again, enraptured by my nanny's tales of the characters in these stories. ~ Joselyn Geaga-Rosenthal, LCSW, Licensed Psychotherapist

04/07/2024

Thanks to Walter Ang for including the book I first edited, Fiction by Filipinos in America, which includes classic stories by Carlos Bulosan, Bienvenido N. Santos, N.V.M. Gonzalez, Linda Ty-Casper and more.

Top 6 Fil-Am books to read for the Fourth of July
Here's a list of top books by Filipino American authors that will help get you in the mood for the 4th of July celebration
By: Walter Ang - .NET U.S. Bureau / 05:12 PM June 29, 2024

30/05/2024

For your summer reading, look for titles by PALHbooks.com

25/04/2024

Guia Lim shares her article about Our Lady of Antipolo. This is part of the book, MAGNIFICAT: Mama Mary's Pilgrim Sites, Ed. Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, (available from Kindle and other digital servers).
The book collects articles by Marian devotees who witness how their lives have been touched by Our Lady. The book has an Imprimatur by Cardinal Tagle~ Cecilia

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2019/03/guest-blogger-guia-lim-writes-about.html

"OUR LADY OF PEACE AND GOOD VOYAGE / OUR LADY OF ANTIPOLO

by Guia Lim

IF THERE is a shrine of our lady in the Philippines or anywhere in the world that conjures both a sense of prayer and fun, it must be the shrine in Antipolo a city in the Philippines, east of Manila. The shrine honors an image of our lady, made of dark hard wood, with a long history behind it. The brown virgin, in ornately embroidered and beaded finery is enshrined at the Cathedral of Antipolo above the main altar. What appears like a full figure, about four feet tall is actually a bust with hands, clothed to simulate a full figure in a long skirted frock, with a cape and a crown...."

17/04/2024

PALH (Palhbooks.com) titles published in the US and the Philippines. Look for them in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Lazada and Shopee.
NOTE: Linda Ty-Casper' Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark, was recently reissued by the Ateneo Press; Veronica Montes' Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories was recently reissued by the UST Publishing House and will be launched this month in Manila.

22/03/2024

For your
Most PALH titles on Kindle are listed for $9.99. Please check them out. Search in Amazon via title, then click on Kindle.

Titles include books by:
Linda Ty-Casper's books (Awaiting Trespass, A River, One-Woman Deep: Stories, and Will You Happen, Past the Silence Through the Dark? Remembering Leonard Ralph Casper);
Veronica Montes (Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories);

3 Growing Up Filipino books edited by Cecilia Brainard (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WFS93MR)

Fiction by Filipinos in America;
Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America;
Magnificat: Mama Mary's Pilgrim Sites;
Asian and Philippine Folktales, and more.

16/03/2024

March 15, 2024, 2 pm

07/03/2024

Cecilia Brainard's article "A Second Life for Linda Ty-Casper's Novel, 'Three-Cornered Sun' is out in Positively Filipino:

https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/a-second-life-for-linda-ty-caspers-novel-three-cornered-sun

"Linda Ty-Casper ranks among the greatest of Filipino novelists. She has been writing novels and short stories since the 1960s. Her greatness stems from her mastery in storytelling and her choice of subject matter; it lies beyond the impressive number of books she has written and the numerous awards she has received including the SEAWrite Award, Rockefeller/Bellagio Grant, Radcliff Institute Grant, Djerassi Grant, and more.

Her most memorable books are historical and political fiction documenting significant events in Philippine history: the Spanish and Philippine-American periods, and the Marcos Dictatorship, for instance. Some titles include Dread Empire; The Peninsulares; Fortress in the Plaza; A Small Party in a Garden; Wings of Stone; Awaiting Trespass. among others.

But while Linda sets her stories during crucial historical moments, her characters are what make her stories work. These complex characters portray the suffering as well as the resilience of the Filipino during memorable historical turning points. That these should not be forgotten no doubt factored into Exploding Galaxies’ decision to reprint Linda’s internationally acclaimed Three-Cornered Sun, a historical novel about the Filipino revolution against Spain.
(continue reading in PF)

Linda Ty-Casper’s most memorable works are historical and political fiction documenting significant events in Philippine history.

16/01/2024

PALH author of Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories -- available at Amazon
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=890553286190626&id=100057078895701&mibextid=Nif5oz

11/11/2023

To avoid the Christmas rush, order your gift books early. Thank you for considering PALH titles, available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshopdotorg/shop/PALH. Your support allows us to continue publishing fine books.

09/11/2023

For your weekend reading, take a trip to Mexico and read "San Miguel De Allende: A Mexican Heritage Jewel" by Cecilia Brainard, published in Positively Filipino.

Please "like" at the bottom of the article. Thank you and have a great weekend coming up!

https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/san-miguel-de-allende-a-mexican-heritage-jewel

07/11/2023

Tips for Writers: Copyright and Publishing Rights by Cecilia Brainard, published in Positively Filipino:

Find out how writers can protect their works from being stolen or plagiarized.

07/11/2023

via Yvette Fernandez

The UST Publishing House receives 10 nods from the National Book Awards! The winners, chosen from among books published in the Philippines in 2022, will be announced at the awarding ceremony in January 2024.

07/11/2023

Cecilia Brainard's tribute to the poet Mila D. Aguilar, published in Positively Filipino:

https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/farewell-to-a-caged-pigeon

06/11/2023

The book, GROWING UP FILIPINO 3 is a finalist for the 41st National Book Award (Anthology, English). I am grateful to the National Book Development Board – Philippines, UST Publishing House, and to the contributors to the anthology:

Gina Apostol, Kannika Pena, Jack Wigley, Veronica Montes, Nikki Alfar, Yvette Fernandez, Danton Remoto, Cecilia Brainard, George Deoso, Patricia Manuel Go, Migs Bravo Dutt, Ian Casocot, James Fajarito, Sarge Lacuesta, Dom Sy, Eileen Tabios, Marianne Villanueva, Marilyn Alquizola, Brian Roley, Patrick Joseph Caoile, Zak Linmark, Linda Ty-Casper, Renee Macalino Rutledge, Noelle De Jesus, and Oscar Penaranda.

The anthology Growing Up Filipino 3 is available from the UST bookstore, Lazada, Shopee, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Look for it at Fully Booked as well.

Thank you and congratulations to the other finalists!

27/09/2023

Please read an excerpt from Eileen R. Tabios' recent book, THE INVENTOR, published in my blog.

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2023/09/excerpt-from-inventor-by-eileen-r-tabios.html

Eileen says:
“I wrote THE INVENTOR, not because it’s about my life but, because it’s an autobiography that connects history, language, and poetry in a unique way beyond narratives. I learned English because it became widespread in my birth land, the Philippines, through U.S. colonialism. That caused me, as a young poet, to feel estranged from my raw material: English. My poetry practice, however, would lift me out of politics to meet poetry more directly as its own type of language. Ultimately, my prolonged engagement with poetry enabled me to create poetry inventions that metaphorically disrupts colonialism by generating communities of readers and writers worldwide. These inventions include the hay(na)ku which has spread globally among poets and the “Flooid” whose pre-writing condition precedent of a “good deed” makes poetry live redemptively and beyond the page. In THE INVENTOR, I show how Poetry is not mere words but a proactive approach to improving our relationships with each other and life on our planet.”

14/09/2023

Noel Alumit's new book, MUSIC HEARD IN HI-FI AND OTHER STORIES, will be launched at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Av., LA, CA 900027, tel: 1-323-660-1175, on September 16, 2023, 3 p.m.

Here is an article about Noel and his new book, in Positively Filipino, please take a look.

https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/tales-of-the-city-noel-alumits-music-heard-in-hi-fi-and-other-stories

21/08/2023

This is a 2021 US Edition of Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America which collects 26 stories by emerging as well as established Filipino writers living in America, including Luis Cabalquinto, Linda Ty-Casper, Jay Ruben Dayrit, Alma Jill Dizon, Ligaya Victoria Fruto, N.V.M. Gonzalez, Vince Gotera, Paulino Lim, Jr., Veronica Montes, Oscar Penaranda, Edgar Poma, Greg Sarris, Eileen Tabios, John Silva, Marianne Villanueva, Fatima Lim-Wilson, and others.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716091

This anthology, plus others Cecilia Brainard edited (including Fiction by Filipinos in America, Growing Up Filipino I and II) are valuable sources for many teachers. To quote Harold Augenbraum, “Brainard has done a fine job bringing many little-known writers – and the edginess of Filipinos in America – to the fore.”

12/08/2023

ASIAN AND PHILIPPINE FOLKTALES contains retellings of beloved Asian and Philippine folktales as retold by members of PAWWA (Philippine American Women Writers and Artists), a small group of Filipina writers who had published these stories in two books. This collection includes 25 stories from places such as Laos, Japan, Korea, Sumatra, Vietnam, China, Bali, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines. The book's target audience is 8 and older.

You can find the book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716261

PAWWA was founded in 1991 by a group of seven Filipina writers in Southern California. It was the first such support group for Filipina women writers. PAWWA's founding members are: Valorie Slaughter Bejarano, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Mariquita Athena Davison, Fe Panalingan Koons, Susan N. Montepio, Cecile Caguingin Ochoa, and Nentuzka C. Villamar.

For six years, PAWWA received the highly competitive Multicultural Entry Grant from the California Arts Council (CAC), which PAWWA used to publish newsletters and books. When PAWWA's CAC funding ran out in June 1998, the remaining members of PAWWA decided to move on, and PAWWA was dissolved.

09/08/2023

Veronica Montes' Benedicta Takes Wing and Other stories remains a beloved collection of short stories. Available https://www.amazon.com/dp/097194587X

24/07/2023

Linda Ty-Casper novels and short stories published by PALH in Ebooks and some in hard copies - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, https://bookshop.org/shop/PALH .

* A Small Party in a Garden
* Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark
* A River, One-Woman Deep: Stories

Linda Ty-Casper was born in Manila, Philippines, grew up in Malabon, and has lived in the United States since 1956, remaining a citizen of the Philippines. Her short stories have appeared in collections; in anthologies and literary magazines in several countries. Her novels, historical and contemporary, trace
the “troubled moments and movements” from the 1750s (The Peninsulars) to the 1980s (DreamEden).

She has degrees from the University of the Philippines and Harvard; received the SEA WRITE Award, ALIWW Parangal, Pamana, UNESCO/P.E.N., Rockefeller (Bellagio), Radcliffe Fellowship; and is a member of the Boston Authors, UP Writers, Society of Radcliffe Fellows, Restoring Sight International, and Birthright.

Writing is her way of coming home to visit, of being home away from home.

21/07/2023

In Honor of Paulino Lim, Jr.
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2012/10/in-honor-of-filipino-american-writer.html

19/07/2023

Remembering those who forged the way for other Filipino and Filam writers: LIGAYA VICTORIO FRUTO, whose story "The Fan" is part of the classic collection FICTION BY FILIPINOS IN AMERICA - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953716059

BORN AND raised in the Philippines, Ligaya Victorio Fruto was trained as a teacher at the Philippine Normal School. While still in her teens, she began teaching and at the same time wrote stories which were published in leading national publications. Because she taught in Baguio, her early stories were mostly about the people of the mountain region.

Ligaya later worked for the pre-war Tribune, forerunner of the Manila Times. Of her contemporaries, Ligaya is one of the few who have not deviated from writing as her main profession. She has covered the field of journalism and creative writing in the Philippines and her adopted country, the U.S., in a range so wide it would be hard to contest. She has written two books, Yesterday and Other Stories and One Rainbow for the Duration, proceeds of which were donated to Philippine charities.

She was married early but was widowed during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. She worked for the Philippine Foreign Service; it was in Honolulu that she met and married Larry Fruto, a Filipino, who, as a very young man, went to Hawaii on his own and finished his engineering education there. Her only son by her first marriage, Ramon V. Reyes, lives in the U.S. with his wife and children. Ligaya lived in Honolulu

17/07/2023

Reposting: Continuing to remember Filipino and Filipino American writers who have forged the way for other writers, here is a blog writeup about Filipina poet Nina Estrada Puyat. The blog entry includes her pictures and poetry

https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2012/09/nina-estrada-puyat-filipina-poet.html

Writer's bio: Nina Estrada Puyat was born in Tarlac, Philippines. Her collection of fifty sonnets, Heart of Clay (1959), was published by Doubleday as This Love Within. Her political works include a three-act play, The Cripple, which was censored by the Marcos regime. The poem "Elegy" was written on the night of the assassination of Benigno Aquino. This poem is said to be the most significant piece of poetry to come out of the People Power ear in the Philippines. Nina was the 1979 Poet Laureate of the Philippine Poets Association; she is the first recipient of a special diploma of Master in Literature from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines.