2019 Peter’s Prize for Poetry

THIS YEAR’S Peter’s Prize for Excellence in Writing will be in the category of Love Poetry.

People can send as many entries as they want.

An entry must consist of a set of seven love poems written in Hiligaynon.

Seven is a good number to show a poet’s range.

Anything less doesn’t really show magnificence.

Anything more should be in book form.

*

No limitation as to the number of lines, although I always say if you can’t write it in 21 lines, you better write a novel instead.

I always thought that 14 lines is a good maximum. 

No prescribed form. 

I mean, I always believe that we should let the poem write itself.

Personally, I’m in love with poems 8 to 12 lines long.

But I’m not a judge, so knock yourself out.

*

I’m partial to Love Poetry because almost everybody can write about love.

This year, I want to focus on Romantic and/or Erotic and Sensual Love.

This year, we take a break from love of country, love of family, even love of God.

I mean, sure, write a love poem for Jesus, but please don’t send it to our contest!

As a lyric poet and erotic sonneteer myself, I think that there are so many beautiful things we can say about love and romance in our own Hiligaynon language.

Hiligaynon just lends itself beautifully to romance.

I mean, if I may be bold to say so, literary Hiligaynon is a most romantic language!

*

Hiligaynon for me is at least 80% Hiligaynon. 

Just like our national language, you can engineer and put in a few words from other languages, but our Hiligaynon contest is a Hiligaynon writing contest.

It is not Kinaray-a contest. There are other venues for those.

I mean, check out Padya Kinaray-a or something like that.

But Hiligaynon is Hiligaynon.

If you use tubig for water, for example, you are Hiligaynon illiterate.

The Hiligaynon word for water is tubi, without a final g.

*

I don’t think you know Hiligaynon if use gin-paasa ka lang, when you were made to believe/hope; as in, taken for a ride.

Pag-asa is Tagalog for the Hiligaynon paglaum.

Pinaasa is Tagalog for the Hiligaynon ginpasalig.

Anyway, that’s your problem. 

You are the poet.

Your diction is your diction.

*

The deadline for the contest is August 31, midnight Philippine time.

Submission is only by email. 

Yes, electronic. 

No slow mails. No couriers. 

See? No postage stamps!

No clumsy paper pages. 

We at The Peter Solis Nery Foundation are very environmental friendly.

No need for notarized entries. 

We will do the legal stuff after you win.

*

Seven. Hiligaynon. Love poems. 

In one email.

One poem after the other. 

Numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.

No fancy fonts, no fancy alignment.

Your name and contact information at the end of the document.

In the Subject Heading of your email: Write the title of your poetry collection, and your name.

Don’t worry, your entries will be judged blind.

We will process your entries so that they will have uniform fonts, uniform formats.

They will be unnamed, unmarked for our judges.

*

Email your poems as embedded text in the body. And/or as attachment.

If you can, use Word document with .doc or .docx format.

If it’s a problem, don’t worry.

We are an understanding contest. 

We understand that some of you just work with smartphones.

But if you have a computer, try sending it also as attachment.

*

Email to: 500tinaga@gmail.com

Cc: psnfoundation@gmail.com

You already worked hard to write your poems, make sure we receive them.

Wait for confirmation of receipt within 24 hours.

Usually, it’s just a curt reply: “Entry received. Thank you. And good luck!”

If no reply is received in 48 hours (and that’s a stretch), send it again.

*

Announcement of winners will be sometime in September.

Awarding of prizes will likely be in October. Not sure yet, but we are working on dates.

I mean, there’s a Peter’s Prize for Film to be announced and awarded, too.

We are planning a small Film Festival—

The Peter Solis Nery Foundation International Film Festival.

It’s not a bad idea to merge the parties.

Short films screening and poetry readings, and awards ceremony all rolled into one, why not?

*

Thank you for your continued support to the Peter’s Prize, the longest-running literary prize in Western Visayas today.

We were founded in 2012-13.

We are seven years old this year.

And we are going back to the first category we ever sponsored: Love Poetry.

Because we know what we are doing!/PN

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here