Before I started working for Likhaan, I spent one summer working for the UP National Writers Workshop as a volunteer documentor. This was during the university’s centennial year. All I wanted really was a week’s vacation in Camp John Hay. I didn’t know that that week would change many things in my life–I got convinced to resign from the UP Press to become Butch Dalisay’s deputy director in Likhaan, I rediscovered my love for Baguio City, and I gained very good friends among the fellows.
Jun Lana, Me, and Ralph Galan in one of the fellow’s rooms. Photo by Nick Pichay.
From the many happy memories of that year’s workshop, I cherish most the nightly drinking sessions with Frank Cimatu and Jun Balde (Some nights Bobby Anonuevo would join us). These guys never got drunk. We would stop drinking at around 4 in the morning. I would go to my room to sleep for an hour before going to check on the breakfast spread. And every morning without fail, I was greeted by the tranquil tableau of Frank and Jun, both freshly bathed, quietly sipping coffee on the patio and discussing the finer points of golf as they watched the early morning players make their way through the golf course surrounding the lodge we were billeted in.
Vince Serrano, Nick Pichay, Me, Ian Casocot, Bobby Anonuevo, Alan Derain, Rica Bolipata Santos, and Charlson Ong during the short trek to the stream bisecting BenCab’s property. Except for me and Charlson who was teaching fellow, everyone else was a writing fellow. This was a particularly fabulous batch. Photo by Jun Lana.
Now if the straight boys were a lot of fun, so were the gays. And they took really lovely pictures. The two photos in this post were taken by the two Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Famers among the writing fellows, Nick Pichay and Jun Lana.
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