palanca awards 2007: updated

At a day-long photo shoot, I get a call from Nikki who reads me a letter. It takes a couple of moments for my brain to process it, but it turns out that my story, "Poor, Poor Luisa", won 2nd prize (Short Story for Children) at this year's Palanca Awards.

I had to temper my happiness (I was with client, after all) and managed a degree of emotional restraint (haha). I am grateful to the Big Guy above for all his wonderful blessings (suddenly, the number '10' is the most fantastic number in the universe)!

You can read the story here.

If you know someone who won, let me know so we can add to the happy list below!

(Updated) Kudos to:

Apol Lejano-Massebieu - "Culture Shocked: A Story of Recovery (2nd Prize, Essay in English - her first Palanca! And she's one of the contributors for Phil Spec Fic V2, up for a National Book Award)
Crystal Koo - "Benito Salazar's Last Creation" (3rd Prize, Short Story in English - also her first, yay!)
Glenn Mas - "Games People Play" (2nd Prize, Full-Length Play in English - his umpteenth - he is such a wonderful playwright)
Sheila dela Cuesta - "Junior" (1st Prize, Short Story for Children in Filipino - also her first)
Wilfredo Pascual - (1st Prize, Essay in English - his second 1st prize in Essay, after his incredible Nora-centric piece "Devotion" in 2004)
Mikael Co - "Hands for a Fistful of Sand" (1st Prize, Poetry in English)
Mike Alcazaren - "Prisoner Alpha" (1st Prize, Screenplay in Filipino)
Michael Coroza - (3rd prize, Short Story for Children in Filipino)
Allan Derain - "Paputian ng Laba" (1st prize, Short Story in Filipino)
Jerome Gomez - (2nd prize, Short Story in Filipino)
Allan Lopez - "Battery Park" (3rd Prize, One-Act Play in English)
Rebecca Anonuevo - ? (2nd Prize, Poetry in Filipino)
Debbie Tan - ? (1st Prize, Play in ?)
Dina Roma - "Imaginary Numbers" (3rd Prize, Poetry in English)
Chris Martinez - "Our Lady of Arlegui" (1st Prize, One-Act Play in Filipino)