Throwback 2013, Part 3

THE THING with throwbacks is that once you start it, you can’t seem to stop.

Throwbacks interest me.

And it’s nice that my life is heavily documented.

Not only on Facebook, but also in the newspaper.

Here’s what I said in an interview exactly six years ago.

This talks about the very first Peter’s Prize.

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Does PSN envision Peter’s Prize to be like the Palanca Awards?

You can say that because, in a sense, I want Peter’s Prize to be a long-running and respectable literary contest like the Palanca.

You must understand that I owe so much of my writing confidence to the Palanca Awards that I cannot steal the thunder from it.

I am a Palanca Hall of Famer, for God’s sake!

For the moment, I’d be happy for Peter’s Prize to be dubbed as the breeding ground of future Palanca winners.

I mean, right now, Palanca has a Hiligaynon short story contest category, but they require something like 3,000-5,000 words.

I only require 500 words or less for my short story contest.

The Palanca’s first prize in the category gets P15,000 and a medal, a Peter’s Prize winner wins at least P5,500 and a U.S.-minted medal.

I’m thinking that if people can master their storytelling craft in 500 words, they can just move on to be more ambitious and aim for the Palanca.

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Why did the PSN Foundation create the Very Short Story contest?

I love short stories. 

If a novel is like an ocean of ideas, the short story is like a tiny pebble that causes ripples of thoughts in my mind. 

It may not be as long as the novel, but it still has the power to tickle the mind. 

I usually write my own stories 15, up to maybe 20, pages long, but that is such a drag. 

I would sometimes spend weeks writing an 18-page story. 

Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to tell a short story in just one page? 

One page: that’s about 500 words, or less, in double space. 

How can you make a full story, not just a joke, in less than 500 words? 

Now, that is the challenge, and the bigger challenge, still, is to tell it in the Hiligaynon language. 

Thus, The Peter’s Prize for Very Short Story Contest.

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Does the Very Short Story contest carry a cash prize?

We often say that our words don’t count, or are not worth anything. 

But imagine being paid a peso for your every word that is counted! 

So, I said, for 2013, write and tell a story, in 500 words or less, in Hiligaynon, on any theme, using any style, and submit them every month for the Very Short Story writing contest by posting them on the wall of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation on Facebook, or by sending them to 500tinaga@gmail.com.

The deadline was every 25th day of the month. 

A monthly winner was announced usually on the 30th or 31st. 

The prize is one peso for every word of the story. 

Two runner-up stories were also chosen, and were made eligible for the next month’s contest. 

In September 2013, the winning stories of each month will compete for the championship, where the grand prize winner will receive a to-die-for medal, and a cash prize equivalent to the story’s word count multiplied by 10 pesos for each word. 

Also, there’s a chance for publication: all submitted entries will be collected and edited for publication by the end of the year. 

Unfortunately, for 2013, the contest is only open online, and Facebook submission (by posting on the wall of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation) is preferred. 

But things could change after 2013.

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How so?

Well, running a monthly contest is rather tedious. 

Especially that I am almost a one-man team. 

My experience since January has not been easy. 

I personally campaigned online for entries, and I also had to scout for judges. 

I shortlisted the entries myself, sent them out to the judges, and waited for the results. 

Sure, I enjoyed it, but the process was rather wearying for me. 

I figured that after September, we should campaign for entries in the 2014 edition among schools. 

And since I anticipate a bigger participation among the young, I decided that next year, I should have stories in various genres like Very Short Horror, Very Short Humorous, or Very Short Modern tales, et cetera. 

I’m also thinking of conducting the 2014 contests quarterly instead of monthly.

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Why after September? 

Because that coincides with my annual visit to the Philippines, and as previously mentioned, The Peter Solis Nery Foundation was founded on September 6. 

Actually, I’m arriving in Iloilo on August 23 to start my vacation, but we will have the awarding ceremonies around our first Foundation day, if not on September 6 itself. 

After that, I will personally launch our school campaign by visiting several colleges, universities, and high schools in the city and province of Iloilo. 

I have decided that our 2014 quarterly writing contests will start in October, have a December 31 deadline, and a first winner announced on January 6, which is my birthday.

Then, the next deadline would be March 31, and we will name another winner on April 6.

And so on, until the next grand prize awarding ceremony on September 6, 2014. 

In addition to the campaign for participation, I will personally oversee the publication of the 2013 submitted entries in October through December for an anthology book, which will be launched on January 6, my birthday, and the traditional date for the feast of The Three Kings. 

It will be “my birthday gift” to the world.   

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So there will be four Peter Prizes next year compared to the two this year?

At least four. 

I mean, who knows what I’ll think of in the next few days. 

And for as long as I have the money to run the contests and award the prizes, who is going to stop me carry out the Foundation’s mission-vision of promoting, preserving, and propagating Hiligaynon Literature? 

For 2013, it’s just the Very Short Story and the Love Poetry contests. 

For 2014, I can see, at the very least, contests for horror story, love story, humorous story, modern fairy tale, erotic story, children’s poetry, and love poetry. (To be continued/PN)

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