Introduction
The two young writers from Northern Luzon who share their work in this series are both writing fellows of the Pasnaan Literary workshop for Ilokano writers of the GUMIL Filipinas (Ilokano Writers Associations of the Philippines).
Pearl Lovedyn Dacuag, a published poet and broadcaster fromGamu, Isabela, won the first prize in the Ilokano poetry competition, Gabriela Prize 2020, by an independent publishing company. Some of her works have been included in recent Ilokano anthologies published by GUMIL Filipinas. Her poems in this series speak of acceptance or resignation to something inevitable, other than death—like the fleeting colors of the rainbow, the sparkle of stars after daybreak, an ember dying out, and fakeness like Icarus’s wings, and temporariness, like the seasonal fireflies.
Leah Manzano, a high school teacher from Salcedo, Ilocos Sur,contributes Ilokano children stories for Bannawag magazine and other publications. In her short story in Filipino, she pays tribute to a mother’s unsurpassable love and sacrifice for her children, perhaps a common fare in stories yet it never fails to string emotions. At the mother’s wake, the narrator, her youngest daughter, reflects on how the mother, by sheer hardwork, overcame the abandonment of her husband and her lack of education to inspire her children to excel in academics.
