THE National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), led by its chairman National Artist Virgilio Almario, executive director Al Ryan Alejandre, and deputy executive director Marichu Tellano, through the Plan/Policy Formulation and Programming Division (P/PFPD)-Arts Section headed by Ferdinand Isleta, will hold an awarding ceremony for the NCCA 2019 Writers' Prize awardees on December 2, 2019 at the Bayleaf Intramuros.
Guest of honor and speaker will be one of the country's most versatile and prolific writer, Dr. Jose "Butch" Dalisay.
The NCCA Writers' Prize is a biennial award given to five writers, one for each category, namely; for poetry, novel, essay/creative non-fiction, short story and drama.
The novel category winner in Waray language is Firie Jill Ramos, member of KATIG Writers Network Inc. in Eastern Visayas and author of "Tinalunay: Hinugpong nga Panurat ha Waray" published by UP Press in 2017. She won for the novel titled "Estiling."
For the short story category, Januar E. Yap will bag the award with his entry titled "MATA'G ADLAW" in Cebuano language. In 2015, he received the third prize for Cebuano Fiction in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and currently a faculty member in the College of Communication, Art and Design at the University of the Philippines Cebu.
For the essay/creative non-fiction category in Kinaray-a language, Ritchie Pagunsan won for his entry titled "Sa Ili-ili kang mga Handumanan." He was declared winner at the 2015 Writers' Prize for Drama in the Kinaray-a language for his work "Morado ang Duag kang Kalipay." He also the founder and president of Dungug Kinaray-a Inc.
For the drama category in Ibanag language, George B. Andal Jr. will bag the award with his drama titled "Vulan I Vulan." He is with the Tagapagtaguyod ng Sining at Kultura ng Pilipinas Tuguegarao Chapter and received Top 1 (Division Level) for 2019 Search for Best Learning Resource Writers.