Manila Book Fair

Thank you to Kristin Mandigma of Read Or Die who invited me to be part of the panel for new and independent publishers at the Manila Book Fair today, September 2, 2007, 12 noon. It was fun to discuss and share the goals of PGS with those who attended the discussion. With me in the panel were Ani V. Habulan of Anvil Publishing, Sherwil P. Nuesa of Cozy Reads Publishing, and an old schoolmate, Jade Bernas of Story Philippines. Kristin ably handled the hosting gig, a difficult job I'm sure with four publishers pushing their products. Again, thanks very much, Kristin.

I found it particularly amusing that we each had common authors, and were not afraid to say so! Of course, Ani was plugging Dean Francis Alfar's The Kite of Stars and Other stories, so Jade and I interrupted to say that we had Dean's work in our past issues, and will have him again in our next ones. PGS2 and Issue 4 of Story Philippines came out pretty much at the same time with stories from Chiles Samaniego, and Sherwil did note that Cozy Reads and PGS shared authors in Elyss Punsalan and Celestine Trinidad. What a small world.

But we all also share the same goal: to push literacy in the Philippines, to get more Filipinos to read, and not just the work of foreign authors, but that of fellow Filipinos too. Here's hoping we can do something about that, no matter how small our contribution is.