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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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Socot and Peter Solis Nery
I’M THE kind of alumnus who always goes back to my old schools to pay courtesy visits to my former teachers, and to make friends with their new principals, students, and staff.
When I was in college, I often visited my high school in Dumangas. And that’s when I first met Janeth Deza, a teacher who impressed me as a go-getter.
We became fast friends because she was the school paper adviser at that time; and I think she was one of those campus paper moderators who first assigned staffers to interview and feature me in the high school/community paper, of which I was also editor-in-chief when I was in my junior and senior years in high school.
Over the years, Janeth became Mrs. Demegillo (thus, her transfer to Koronadal City), and a doctor of Rural Development from Iloilo State College of Fisheries. A smart entrepreneur, and a feisty mother for a child with a rare medical condition.
Dr. Janeth Deza-Demegillo is also a Facebook friend, so over the years (since I became a Facebooker in 2006, anyway), she also saw my posts and photos about how I was going this way and that giving lectures all over the country. Except in Mindanao.
She has been doggedly inviting me to go visit Mindanao to share my literary expertise and artistic wisdom there.
I only resisted because I was married then; and my spouse, an American, does not want to take chances with Mindanao. What with kidnapping news, and the US State Department’s travel advisories.
My late spouse was a jealous man. While he knows he can trust me, he cannot trust other men around me. So, he doesn’t want me to go to Mindanao alone.
When I retired in 2014, and wanted to focus on the work of my Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, my spouse finally let me go to South Cotabato; but he didn’t come along with me.
That year, I gave 12 lectures and workshops in nine or 10 cities and towns all over the Philippines, all in a period of 25 days in September!
I lectured as far north as Baguio and Los Baños in Luzon, and as far south as Koronadal and Polomolok in Mindanao, plus cities and towns in the islands of Panay and Negros in between.
If I didn’t earn the title of “Literary Workshop King” then, I don’t know what else will qualify me.
I gave my first Soccsksargen region-wide seminar-workshops (my first Mindanao workshops really) in September 2014. They were attended by some two hundred plus, maybe 256 or 265, participants.
Full disclosure: the three-day seminar was divided into two batches: “The Poem Soars, The Story Begins” on the art of writing interesting poetry and fiction; and “Write, Camera, Action!”, a guerilla filmmaking workshop.
The 2014 seminars were followed by another creative writing workshop in November last year, “The Peter Solis Nery 21st Century Approach to Writing and Filmmaking Skills for the Schools and Beyond”.
A conflict of schedule in DepEd and CHED activities reduced the number of participants to my seminars. A lot of people signed up, but then backed out on the last minute.
But, but, but! Last year’s workshop resulted to a book called “SoCot: Anthology of New Writings from South Cotabato”, which, I, of course, edited, and published in the US.
I thought to myself, that should teach people to choose wisely next time. I mean, between DepEd (or CHED) and Peter Solis Nery, you would be stupid not to choose Peter Solis Nery, who is DepEd-plus; and obviously, CHED-and-then-some.
Sure, you need a DepEd and CHED diploma. But if you get a chance to listen to, and be workshopped by greatness, go for the tried-and-tested Mr. Excellence.
You see, your literary and writing education should produce great works. And your writing should result to publishable materials.
Hello? You study language, writing and composition in school for seven years from Grade Four to Fourth Year (now Grade 10), and where is your published work?
You attend a two-day creative writing workshop with Peter Solis Nery, and suddenly you are a published writer? With a real book you can touch with your hands!
There’s just no contest!
Anyway, the Socot anthology book features 23 new writers from South Cotabato.
What is published may not be their most representative works, but they are the best works at, and from, the workshop.
I’m pretty sure some of these writers will abandon writing later on in their life.
But I’m equally sure that some are inspired and encouraged to write even more. And I can’t wait to know what they will become, and what greatness they can achieve.
So, anyway, as far as I am concerned, and in so far as there are no other published anthologies of new writings from the area, the works I’ve chosen, and edited, are the arguably the best of new writings from South Cotabato.
Now, because of the book, I am again obligated to go to Koronadal for the book launching on August 26th. And while there, to maximize the trip, I will be giving another two-day writing workshop on Flash Fiction and Children’s Literature.
In my 25-day vacation to the Philippines, I will be in Mindanao for four days, including the flights from, and back to, Iloilo.
That’s actually a big share of my limited vacation time.
But the event is meaningful to me, and to my work and advocacy in The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts.
I mean, what would my life be, if I do not spend it sharing what I know, teaching what I do best, discovering new talents, and helping them celebrate their new status as published authors?
My goal in life is meaningful existence. And these days, leaving a legacy by teaching, and helping others reach their maximum and optimum potentials is just important to me. (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
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