BESAO—A 33-year-old poetess from the Mountain Province coveted the Writers’ Prize of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) for her collection of poems written in the local dialect.
Gawani Aquino Domogo-Gaongen was honored for “Sukat,” her collection of poems in the local Kankanaey dialect, said Christine Godinez-Ortega, head of the National Committee on Literary Arts and NCCA chairman Felipe de Leon Jr.
Gaongen now manages Gaia Café and Crafts in Sagada, which is one of the frequently visited souvenir shops in the municipality being a gateway to the scenic Sumaguing caves.
The award includes a writing grant amounting to P250,000 for the writing of the entry piece, which is expected to be finished in a year.
During the preliminary stage, Gawani submitted 10 poems. After a year she must complete the required 30 poems for publication by the NCCA.
For this year, the biennial NCCA Writers’ Prize was given to five writers in different categories including poetry (Kankana-ey language), novel (Rinconada language), essay (Meranao language), short story (Kapampangan language) and drama (Kinaray-a language).
The last batch of NCCA Writers’ Awardees for 2013 were Ariel Tabag for novel in the Ilokano language, Joselito delos Reyes for short story in Filipino, Hope Sabanpan-Yu for essay in Cebuano, Rafael Banzuela Jr. for poetry in Bikolano and Jeremy Alexandre Evardone for drama in Waray language. They received the award during the 2014 Taboan Literary Festival in Subic.