Dimzon, Alain Russ

May 31, 2018

Alain Russ Dimzon was the first fellow for Hiligaynon Poetry of the UP National Writers
Workshop. As a poet, fictionist, lyricist and songwriter, his works in Hiligaynon, Filipino
and English have appeared in Home Life, National Midweek, Philippine
Panorama, Sunday Inquirer Magazine, Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic, The
Sunday Times, Ani, Patubas, Mantala, In Time Passing There Are Things, Native
Words Native Roots, CCP Literary Yearbook, The Best of Likhaan, San Ag, Philippine
Studies, Tulaan Sa Tren, Under the Storm, Sansiglong Mahigit na Makabagong Tula sa
Pilipinas, PEN Journal, Sa Atong Dila, Alpha Records and RAWA Records. His awards
come from Hiligaynon Magasin, Home Life, National Commission for Culture and the
Arts, Komisyon Sa Wikang Filipino, Fray Luis de Leon Creative Writing Institute,
Department of Tourism, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, The
Ilonggo Music Festival and the Asian Composers League.

He has authored and co-authored scientific and policy papers which passed the
screening, were invited, presented or published by the University of Florida, American
Academy of Sciences, Widener University of Pennsylvania, Amsterdam and Berlin
Conferences on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change and the
International Society on Equity on Health-Canada. Recently, he received the Gawad
Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas from UMPIL.

WORKS

1. REPENTANCES & REHABILITATIONS

Earliest Published Poems

(c) 2016, Kasingkasing Press, Guimaras, Philippines

2. WALO KAG DOSE NA

Contemporary Hiligaynon Songs in the Folk Style Tradition

(c) 2015, Kasingkasing Press, Guimaras, Philippines

3. ANG MANUNULAT KAG PENDULUM

Hiligayon Poems with English Translation & Notes on the Author’s Philological Theory
(c) 2008, University of San Agustin Publishing House

On February 21, 1853, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, one of the greatest Filipino
painters along with fellow painter Juan Luna in the 19th century, was born in Binondo,
Manila.

Hidalgo played a significant role in Philippine history for having been an acquaintance
and inspiration for members of the Philippine reform movement which included Dr. Jose
Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar, Mariano Ponce and Graciano López Jaena.

(Self portrait, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, 1901)

He studied Fine Arts and was subsequently sent to Spain in 1879 as

a "pensionado" and enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Madrid.
Instead of returning to the country after his studies, Hidalgo went to Paris and put up a
gallery, which became one of the centers of Filipino activities, where Filipino exiles and
revolutionaries found a sanctuary.

One of the highlights of his career was his winning the silver medal in the 1884 Madrid
Exposition of Fine Arts, along with the gold win of painter Juan Luna, whom members of
the Philippine reform movement celebrated, with Rizal toasting to the two painters' good
health and citing their awards as evidence that Filipinos and Spaniards were equals.

(Las virgenes Cristianas expuestas al populacho, 1884)

In his lifetime, Hidalgo produced over a thousand works which include oil paintings,
water color, pastels and charcoal drawings, with subjects ranging from the mythological
and historical to landscapes, seascapes, portraits and figures of the genre.

Eventually he became a great prize winner, including his paintings exhibited at the
French Academy and marked H.C. (Hors Concours). He received a gold medal for his
overall participation at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. His "El
Violinista" was individually accorded a gold medal.

The canvases he executed for the Spanish colonial government in return for his study
grant include: Governor Luis Perez Dasmarinas and his Dominican Advisor, Guerreros
Filipinos Velando la Tumba de su Jefe (Filipino Warriors Guarding the Tomb of their
Chief), 1890, and The Defeat of Limahong, 1892.

(The murder of Governor-general Fernando Manuel de Bustillo Bustamente y

Rueda)

His Greek Philosopher at Work, 1889, La Enferma(The Invalid), 1900, and Per Pacem
et Libertatem(Through Peace and Liberty), 1904, all life-sized pieces, used to hang in
the National Museum which was then called National Gallery of Art in Manila.

His major and controversial mural is the Assassination of Governor Fernando Manuel
de Bustamente, which shows friars murdering the governor.

He died on March 13, 1913 at the age of 60 in Sarrea, near Barcelona, Spain. His
remains were brought back to Manila and entombed in the Hidalgo family mausoleum at
the Cementerio del Norte (North Cemetery).

Peter Solis Nery

(born 6 January 1969) is an award-winning Filipino poet, fictionist, and author. Writing in
his native Hiligaynon language, he has won such prestigious literary contests as the
Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Cultural Center of the Philippines
(CCP) Literary Grant, and the All-Western Visayas Literary Contest of the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). He was inducted into the Palanca Awards
Hall of Fame in 2012.

Diversifying into English and Filipino, he has authored over 20 books, and wrote
screenplays that won the Philippine Centennial Literary Prize of 1998, the 1998 Film
Development Foundation of the Philippines’ Screenwriting Contest, the 2001
Cinemanila International Film Festival Scriptwriting Competition, and the 2012 Film
Development Council of the Philippines’ First Sineng Pambansa National Film
Competition. He wrote and edited wide circulation newspapers in Iloilo City before
becoming a nurse in the United States.
As a screen actor, Peter briefly appears in Tikoy Aguiluz’s film on cybersex,
www.XXX.com (Maverick Films, 2003), of which he was also the Assistant Director. He
also has a cameo performance in Gugma sa Panahon sang Bakunawa (Graydonnery
Artists and DreamWings Productions, 2012), the first full-length feature film that he
wrote, directed, and produced.

Peter worked as an orthopedic nurse in Los Angeles, California for seven years before
moving to Reisterstown, Maryland, where he now lives. He continues to write in English
and Hiligaynon.

Early life and education

Peter was born and raised in the coastal town of Dumangas, Iloilo on the island of
Panay in central Philippines. The eldest son of the late Cecilino Divinagracia Nery, and
the former Thelma Ramirez Solis, both public school teachers, he has four siblings:
Irene Cecile (now Irene Ramos), Antonio, Rocky, and Maricel (now Maricel Centeno).

Peter attended primary school at the Dumangas Central Elementary School, and
completed his secondary education at the Dumangas Polytechnic College (now Iloilo
State College of Fisheries), where he was consistently first honor from grade one until
his high school graduation. He finished his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences at
the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, where he was named Most Outstanding
Student (1989), and Most Outstanding Graduate of 1990. He also received the
President’s Award of Merit as Outstanding Student in his graduation year.

While attending public school, Peter honed his talent for writing. He was editor of his
school publications from elementary to college, and multi-awarded in the journalistic
genre of news writing, feature writing, editorial writing, and editorial cartooning. Under
his editorship, he led the UPV college publication Pagbutlak to become the region’s best
at the 1989 College Press Awards.
Peter also attended the SVD Christ the King Mission Seminary in Quezon City where he
took an Associate in Philosophy degree in 1992-1993. In 2004, he earned his Bachelor
of Science in Nursing degree from the West Negros College (now West Negros
University) in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

Writing career
After the People’s Power EDSA Revolution of 1986, Peter found himself on the crest of
a new wave in Philippine literature. Post-EDSA, there was a resurgence of interest in
regional writing. The administration of President Cory Aquino also declared a Decade of
Nationalism. At UP, Peter was lucky to meet Leoncio Deriada who encouraged him to
write in the Hiligaynon.
Peter won his first national award in writing from the CCP for his poetry in Hiligaynon,
Mga Ambahanon kag Pangamuyo sang Bata nga Nalimtan sa Wayang [Songs and
Prayers of a Child Forgotten in the Fields] in 1992.
For his performance poetry Si Eva, si Delilah, si Ruth, kag ang Alput [Eva, Delilah, Ruth,
and the Prostitute] at the Premio Operiano Italia, he was crowned Hari sang Binalaybay
[King of Hiligaynon Poetry] in 1993, a title he held until 1998.
Out of his student activism days at the university (He espoused the issues of the US
military bases, Iloilo’s street children, and ecological awareness.), he wrote his first
book, I Flew a Kite for Pepe. He admits, “I cringe now at my boldness to call it poetry
then, but I always thought that the book has a big heart. I still cry when I read it.”
I Flew a Kite for Pepe was published by New Day Publishers in 1993. It was followed by
his earth song and hymn to the planet, First Few Notes of a Green Symphony (1994).
When Gloria F. Rodriguez (1997 Manila Critics’ Circle Lifetime Achievement Awardee
for Publishing) retired from New Day in 1993, she established her own publishing
house, Giraffe Books. Peter was among the first authors she published; the book was
First Few Notes of a Green Symphony, which contained some translations and
reworking of poems from his 1992 CCP Literature Grant.
While working as a religious missionary in Macau, Peter became more introspective and
started his memoirs. The Essential Thoughts of a Purple Cat was published by Giraffe
Books in 1996; Moon River, Butterflies, and Me by New Day in 1997; and My Life as a
Hermit again by Giraffe in 1998.

In 1995, he won the NCCA Western Visayas Poetry Competition for his collection
Umanhon nga Gugma [Love of the Rural Folks]. Some of the poems were translated,
reworked, and included in his provocative collection, Rated R (Giraffe Books, 1997).
Peter Published four titles in 1997: the playful poetry collection Shy Evocations of
Childhood and other Poems that Came under Hypnosis, and Rated R for Giraffe;
Shorts, a collection of haiku-like poems, and the memoir Moon River, Butterflies, and
Me for New Day.

1998 was a big year for Peter’s writing career. Aside from publishing the memoir My Life
as a Hermit, and the collection of lyric poems Fireflies for a Yuppie (both for Giraffe
Books), Peter won his first Palanca gold medal for his magical realist Hiligaynon short
story Lirio, about a deaf-mute who is a victim of marital rape. The Palanca is considered
as the Philippine equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize, a standard by which all Filipino writers
are measured.
Furthermore, his first screenplay, Buyong, about the Katipunero revolutionary from
Aklan won big as a third prize winner in the screenplay category of the Centennial
Literary Prize, the biggest literary prize in the history of the Philippines. The Centennial
Literary Prize awarded P1 Million Pesos to first prize winners, and half a million for third
prize.

With the money he won, Peter visited the United States. Later that year, his second
screenplay, Tayo na sa Buwan [Let’s Go to the Moon], won an honorable mention at the
Film Development Foundation of the Philippines.

Upon his return to the Philippines in 1999, Peter was offered a job as a newspaper
columnist and entertainment editor of The News Today, which was ultimately launched
in 2000. With the publisher’s assurance that he would be given blanket authority over
the pages that he edited, Peter started a sexy ego-tripping writing stance that was later
described as “phenomenal” and “unprecendented in Ilonggo journalism.”

Writing with an edge, and with a bold attitude adapted from the liberal newspapers and
magazines in the United States, Peter became a newspaper icon, and was treated as a
celebrity writer.

Another Palanca win for his sci-fi story Ang Pangayaw [The Stranger] in 2000 solidified
his position and quenched the question whether he could write “properly.”

Peter started his own DreamWings Publishing, and produced A Loneliness Greater than
Love (2000), and exploration of homoerotic themes; and Fantasia (2000), a collection of
his award-winning fiction. In 2001, DreamWings published Rain as Gentle as Tears, a
sequel to his 1997 Shorts collection; and The Prince of Ngoyngoy [The Prince of Sob], a
collection of lyric poems in Hiligaynon that established Peter as the Ilonggo epitome of
sob poetry.

Celebrity status at hand, Peter left The News Today in 2003 for The Guardian (now The
Daily Guardian) to reprise his role as premier agent provocateur of Iloilo City, and the
whole Western Visayas. His columns, teetering between Carrie Bradshaw’s relationship
meditations in Sex and the City, and bawdier versions of the funny essays of David
Sedaris, have become much anticipated and widely followed by readers from all walks
of life.

In 2003, DreamWings published Pierre: The Magazine of Peter Solis Nery. It delivered
three monthly issues.

Finally, in 2005, Peter moved to Panay News, Western Visayas’ oldest and most widely
circulated newspaper. By that time, he was already licensed to practice nursing in the
Philippines. When the opportunity came in 2006, he went to the United States, took the
US nursing licensure exam, passed, found a hospital employer, and stayed to work.

For 100 days in 2005, Peter endeavored to write the 100 Erotic Sonnets in Hiligaynon.
He called it Kakunyag [Thrill]. It was launched in a concert, probably the biggest literary
event of the 2006 National Arts Month in Iloilo, and was serialized in the newspaper
Hublas nga Kamatuoran [The Naked Truth] starting March 2006.

Peter won another Palanca in 2006 for his Hiligaynon psycho-thriller short story Ang
Kapid [The Twins]. The win provided him further encouragement to persevere in writing
Hiligaynon.

In 2007, Peter won his second Palanca gold for his historical Hiligaynon short story
Candido, about the anting-anting [amulets] of the revolutionary Candido Iban. The
following year, he won his third Palanca gold for his full-length play in English, The
Passion of Jovita Fuentes (published by New Day in 2009), about the tragic love affair
of the first Filipino international opera diva and first female National Artist in Music.
Peter also completed translation of his 100 erotic sonnets in Hiligaynon into English in
2008.

In 2011, Peter won his fourth Palanca gold for his Hiligaynon short story, Donato Bugtot,
about a despised twin brother who donated a kidney to his handsome but arrogant twin.
He also posted two second prizes at the Palanca that year for categories in English:
poetry for children and full-length play.

Continuing his winning streak, he won his fifth gold and was elevated to the Palanca
Awards Hall of Fame for his Punctuation, a collection of Poetry for Children in English,
in 2012. In the same year, he also won for his Hiligaynon screenplay Gugma sa
Panahon sang Bakunawa at the FDCP First Sineng Pambansa National Competition.
The win awarded him money with which he made the film from his own script. The film
premiered at the Sineng Pambansa Film Festival in July 2012, and has been shown in
festival circuits in the Philippines, and abroad.

Peter won his sixth Palanca gold in 2013 for his Hiligaynon short story, Si Padre Olan
kag ang Dios, about a priest, his faith, church politics, and the problem of drought.

Other Careers
While in college, Peter worked part-time as Editor of Voices and Tingog sang
Kabataan for Stop Trafficking of Pilipinos (STOP) Foundation in Iloilo City. He was also
the Project Officer for the Streetchildren Program.

In 1991, he attended the seminary, and two years later, went on a religious mission in
Macau. In a ministry of accompaniment to the Filipino migrant workers in Macau and
Hong Kong, Peter held a teaching job at the Scared Heart Canossian College, in
addition to organizing prayer communities and church choirs. At the Canossian College,
he taught secondary school English Grammar, Literature, and Biology.
Upon his repatriation in 1995, Peter became a recluse and wrote many of his published
work. He came out of his self-imposed isolation in 1996, and taught high school English,
World Literature, and Christian Living at Santa Maria Catholic School (now Ateneo de
Iloilo). In 1997, he taught Philosophy at the University of the Philippines.

While teaching, Peter directed and acted in many school productions. He played Biff
Loman in Santa Maria’s production of Death of a Salesman, and directed Edmond
Rostand’s The Romancers for the senior class of the same school. For the Intermedius
at UPV, he directed and acted in Pitik-Bulag sa Buwan ng Pebrero.

Peter did stand-up comedy and performed regularly at the now defunct Graciano Bar
and grill in Jaro, Iloilo City from 1997 until his departure for the US in 1998. Upon his
return to Iloilo in 1999, he performed at arranged capacities in such varied venues as
Amigo Terrace Hotel, Hafa Adai Café, Sisa Bar, Cicada Bar, Zuba, Hite, and Riverside
Bar, among many others.

In his hometown of Dumangas, Peter is a reputable choreographer, director, and

performer. He played Jesus Christ in Lenten and Easter celebrations, and directed a
most lavish coronation pageant for the millennium town fiesta.
Aside from playing Gary Estrada’s sidekick in the film that launched the movie career of
FHM (Philippines) cover girl Juliana Palermo, Tikoy Aguiluz’s www.xxx.com (Maverick
Films, 2003), Peter was also the film’s Assistant Director. In addition, Peter has acted
and collaborated in several other independent films locally in the Philippines, and
abroad.

Nursing Career
While investigating the phenomenon of doctors getting into nursing schools, Peter
enrolled in Nursing as he continued to write for the newspaper. He completed his
Bachelor of Science in Nursing in October 2004, and became a Registered Nurse in the
Philippines in February 2005. He went to the United States in February 2006, and
became a Registered Nurse in California in May of the same year. He started working
as an orthopedic nurse in downtown Los Angeles in 2007.

In October 2008, Peter was given the Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses by the
White Memorial Medical Center and the DAISY Foundation, a foundation for the
elimination of Diseases Attacking the Immune System in memory of J. Patrick Barnes.
Peter was honored for his extraordinary care, compassion, and sensitivity to the needs
of his patients and their families. He was presented a unique hand-carved Shona (a
Zimbabwe tribe) stone sculpture entitled A Healer’s Touch; proceeds from the purchase
of the sculpture helped the artists’ families in Zimbabwe.

Champion of Hiligaynon
Right after his induction to the Palanca Awards Hall of Fame, Peter established The
Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. in September
2012. The Foundation, which aims to promote, preserve, and propagate Hiligaynon
literature, and Filipino art and culture, through research, publications, productions,
education, and cultural dissemination, was incorporated by the Philippine Securities and
Exchange Commission on November 5, 2012.

In 2013, the Foundation launched the literary contest, Peter’s Prize, starting with
categories for Very, Very Short Story, and Love Poetry. Following their success,
categories for Children’s Stories, Poetry for Children, and The Saddest Love Story Ever
Told were opened in 2014.
In addition, the Foundation also went on to publish books of the new Hiligaynon writings
collected from the Peter’s Prize contests. While editing the anthologies, Peter clarified
and revolutionized the Hiligaynon language for the globally aware generation to
accommodate concepts, ideas, and advances in cyber communications and global
industrialization. He advocated the new Hiligaynon orthography upgrading the alphabet
from 20 to 28 letters in the tradition of the new Filipino alphabet established in 1987. He
also formally rejected the use of diacritics or stress marks, a growing trend already, if
the 48 authors from Peter’s Prize are to be believed (only one out of the 48 used stress
marks). His effort is called The Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014, and can be seen in five
or six books published by his Foundation on 2014 alone.

Peter is an independent contractor and oral proficiency interviewer in Hiligaynon

accredited by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)
since January 2013. Aside from winning six Palanca awards, four of them gold medals,
for his Hiligaynon short stories, he also has four previous books in Hiligaynon before his
so-called Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014: Fantasia (2000), The Prince of
Ngoyngoy (2001), Kakunyag (2012), and Stories in Mellifluous Language: Hiligaynon
Short Stories (2012).

As a primary and secondary producer, being a prolific writer and publisher of Hiligaynon
literature, he is positive that his Hiligaynon Revolution will gain ground before long. After
all, he says, orthography is ultimately controlled by those who write, and especially
those who publish, literature in the language.

Peter is also at work for the definitive Hiligaynon dictionary for this, and the future
generations.

Schooled in the public education system, Alice Tan Gonzales cut her teeth on Si Pepe
kag si Pilarin the 60s and fed on Hiligaynon Magazinein late grade school for scant
reading materials within her reach. After Grade II, Alice reconnected with the language
in her study of the Hiligaynon ballad called komposo for her Master’s thesis at the
Ateneo de Manila in the early 1980s. She started writing in Hiligaynon at the prodding of
the “Father of Contemporary West Visayan Literature” Leoncio P. Deriadain 1988. Born
of a Filipina and a Chinese and speaking Hiligaynon at home, it is no wonder she
should write her first short story in Hiligaynon and discover her deep connection with the
language in the process.

Alice has found a home in the Humanities Division, College of Arts and Sciences, UP
Visayas where she teaches literature and communication. UPV sent her to school at UP
Diliman where she finished her Ph. D. in English Studies: Creative Writing in 2008. UPV
has all this time recognized her and supported her specialization and expertise in
Creative Writing in Hiligaynon without prejudice or condescension, for which she is
constantly thankful. She writes poetry, drama and fiction in Hiligaynon, and her area of
study includes Hiligaynon folk literature.

She was awarded the Carlos Palanca Hall of Fame for Literature in 2014 for winning
five first places in the Hiligaynon Category of Maikling Kuwento.

LIST OF WORKS

 Istoryahan Ta Ka Uli, Kasingkasing Press, 2016, a collection of stories for older

children
 Ilongga: Madamo nga Guya, Seguiban Press, Iloilo, 2014 — a collection of
poems on woman
 May Isa ka Kuring nga Hari kag Iban pa nga Sugilanon, Kasingkasing Press,
Iloilo, 2010, a collection of seven stories for children
 Sa Taguangkan sang Duta kag Iban pa nga Sugilanon, Seguiban Press, Iloilo,
2009 — a collection of short stories in Hiligaynon
 Magdalena Gonzaga Jalandoni (May 27, 1891 in Jaro, Iloilo – September 14,
1978 in Jaro) was a Filipino feminist writer. She is now remembered as one of
the most prolific Filipino writers in named in her honor.the Hiligaynon language.
Hailing from Western Visayas, her works are said to have left permanent and
significant milestones in Philippine literature.
 Magdalena Jalandoni was born on May 27, 1891 to an affluent land-owning
family of Gregorio Jalandoni and Francisca Gonzaga in Calle Alvarez now
renamed as Calle Benedicto in the former city of Salog now Jaro, Iloilo City, a
present-day district of Iloilo City. She began writing at a young age wherein she
already had her poems published at the age of 12. She published her first
novel Ang Mga Tunoc Sang Isa Ca Bulac (The Thorns of a Flower), which was
later followed by many novels, compilations of poems and short stories.
Jalandoni only wrote for publication purposes due to the male-dominated society
at the time. Back then, female voices in literature were not taken seriously by the
general public. Although her mother strictly forbade her to take literature
seriously, she refused to do so and devoted her life entirely to literature.
 In her childhood autobiography Ang Matam-is Kong Pagkabata (My Sweet
Childhood), she cites: "I will be forced to write when I feel that my nose is being
assaulted by the scent of flowers, when my sight is filled with the promises of the
sun and when my soul is lifted by winged dreams to the blue heavens."
 Her famous poem Ang Guitara (The Guitar) is read in classrooms all over the
country today. Literary critics and historians claim that she has mastered a
special talent for poetry and description as well as dramatic evocations of
landscapes and events in her novels and short stories. Her works span from the
coming of Malay settlers in the Middle Ages up to the Spanish and American
colonial era as well as the Japanese occupation of World War II, all portraying
the history of Panay and the evolution of the Ilonggo culture. According to Riitta
Varitti of the Finnish-Philippine Society in Helsinki, "Jalandoni was the most
productive Philippine writer of all time."
 Other famous works include Anabella, Juanita Cruz, Sa Kapaang Sang
Inaway (In the Heat of War), Ang Dalaga sa Tindahan (The Young Woman in the
Market) and Ang Kahapon ng Panay (The Past of Panay). Throughout her
turbulent and displaced life, she still managed to publish 36 novels, 122 short
stories, 7 novelettes, 7 long plays, 24 short plays and dialogos in verse compiled
in two volumes, seven volumes of personally compiled essays including some
translations from Spanish and two autobiographies. She has been displaced from
her hometown twice and has survived the Philippine Revolution, the Filipino-
American War and the Japanese Occupation. In 1977, she received the
prestigious Republic Cultural Heritage Award for her literary achievements from
the government, about one year before her death. She died on September 14,
1978 at the age of 87 and is survived by a few nieces as well as several other
close relatives. Despite all this, she still remains relatively unknown up to this
day. Her family's ancestral house still stands as a historical landmark and
museum not far from the cathedral of Jaro.
 A street at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Pasay, Metro
Manila is