COMMENDATION for Baguio girl and poet Luisa Igloria was recently passed at the City Council.
Councilor Arthur Allad-iw, in a resolution, honored Igloria for being appointed as the poet laureate of the State of Virginia in the United States Of America and for garnering honors for her poetry.
On August 2, Igloria was appointed as the Poet Laureate of the State of Virginia for two years, a rare singular achievement for a poet.
Allad-iw said Igloria is a true-blue Baguio girl, having been born, grown up and studied in Baguio City up to her college years and "did not forget her roots when she migrated to the United States of America to teach and become a tenured professor of English at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she also serves as the director of the MFA Creative Writing Program."
Igloria has written 16 books and chapbooks on poetry, short fiction and essays, including Cordillera Tales, Cartography, Songs for the Beginning of the Millennium, Trill and Mordent, Ode to a Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser, Juan Luna's Revolver and Haori and won a slew of awards, including the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature a whopping eleven times, the 1988 Black Warrior Literary Award, Charles Goodknow Endowed Award for Creative Writing, Illinois Arts Council Literary Award and the George Kent Prize for Poetry, among many others.
"Her poems have appeared in almost all the prestigious magazines and journals in the Philippines, US and the rest of the world. They have been anthologized in various anthologies and textbooks, her poetry never failed to evoke the city of her birth as more and more of her students became aware of Baguio and its beauty through her poetry," Allad-iw said.
Igloria was one of the founding members of the Baguio Writers Group, the largest and most influential writers group in the region.
The resolution has unanimously approved by the council and adopted by the body during this week's regular session.