Thursday, October 23, 2008 Ed Maranan bares his latest literary offering By JM Agreda
AFTER spending more than a decade as an information officer at the Philippine embassy in London, while experiencing first hand the Filipino diaspora, Edgar Maranan is back in the literary limelight in his homeland to do what he does best -- writing with flair and passion.
Now a full-time freelance writer and active member of the Baguio Writers Group, Maranan was also recently commissioned by Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)'s Tanghalang Pilipino, to write a full length rock-musical play EJ: Ang Pinagdaanang Buhay nina Evelio Javier at Edgar Jopson interweaving the lives of two popular martyrs of the resistance movement against the Marcos dictatorship.
Last August, Maranan was awarded the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Poetry and Essay in English and Filipino given by the Unyon ng Manunulat sa Pilipino (Umpil).
Receiving a plethora of literary awards here and abroad including recognition in the Hall of Fame in the prestigious Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Maranan claims his greatest achievement to date were his new book published by Anvil co-edited with his daughter, his new poetry book and his six latest children's books all published by Bookmark.
Early Inspirations
Having spent most of his early years in Baguio, Maranan claims he learned a lot from his friend while growing up as a young boy in Saint Louis University (SLU) Boys High.
"My latest poetry book, Passage/Poems 1983-2006, is dedicated to my late friend and SLU Boys High Class '63 classmate, George Alvarez. He was our original class poet and the one most familiar with the works of William Shakespeare, Tennyson and the like," the Carl Sandburg fan said.
However during the last 20 years, while spending most of his years abroad, he had come to engage more in Philippine literary traditions in English and Filipino written by the likes of Amado Hernandez, Virgilio Almario, Lamberto Antonio and other exemplary Filipino writers.
With all these influences, Maranan developed his literature as sharp, elegant, and always relevant as a social commentary, which became the hallmark of these writers and their contemporaries.
Among his accomplishments, he states that his breakthrough work was Ang Panahon ni Cristy which attracted attention because it was written in prison during Martial Law period, and still won a Palanca grand prize.
Having won the most number of Palanca awards for any Filipino writer, with 30 major awards, Ed says all these award-winning works to be fully-judged should eventually be published and read by an audience much bigger than the boards of literary judges who gave their nod of approval.
Literary Offerings
Hence, after his contract with the Department of Foreign Affairs ended, he decided to go home to the Philippines to spend some time with his ageing parents and to break into the Philippine literary scene again, both he missed dearly.
"I had not produced as much creative work as I should have during all those years spent abroad, and they seem to me now like lost years. I've settled down to a simple life as a freelancer, and I have two basic goals in mind: find publishers for all my works that have won prizes in the Palanca and the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY)," he quipped.
And so, Ed gladly stated that his latest books to come off the press where his book Passage/Poems 1983-2006 and his six children's books which include The Girl Who Dreamt She Could Fly, The Song of Pulaw and The Jinx, The Dolphin and the Deep Sea Mystery all published by Bookmark.
"My poems are about my actual voyages to places near and far and my impressions of people and nature found therein," Maranan said.
In the recently concluded Manila International Book Fair last month, after two years of conceptualization and actual writing, Ed Maranan co-edited his latest book A Taste of Home: Pinoy Expats and Food Memories published by Anvil with Len Maranan-Goldstein, his daughter.
"This book is a collection of Filipino expats' reminiscences -- especially during the writers' growing-up-into-adulthood years -- primarily of home and hometown, with Filipino food and cooking as the unifying thread," he said.
Lastly, his message to young Baguio writers: "Since the city's centennial is just a year away, it would certainly be helpful for the people of Baguio, and especially for the young writers, if you were to examine and write about what has seemingly gone wrong -- well, also what's gone right -- with this city."
