Submit to Anvil Fantasy
From Dean Alfar:
Anvil Fantasy is the newest imprint of Anvil Publishing. If you have a manuscript, send it in (contact details are available over at their website). Bonus points if your novel is geared towards a young adult readership.Anvil appears to have a detailed explanation of its editorial procedures on its website. I'm supposing this applies to all new book proposals, so the following guidelines ought to be a great place to start:
First submit an abstract, a complete Table of Contents and two sample chapters. Don't submit a complete hardcopy or paper copy of your manuscript. We try our best to evaluate all kinds of work, but our publishing program mainly considers the more popular trade genres: self-help, reference, biographies, literary anthologies, cookbooks, inspirational, humor. There are no exact criteria for a good piece of work. That’s why we ask help from in-house as well as genre experts and other readers to evaluate the publishability of a submission. Generally, all evaluation is done at the beginning of a year, when we firm up our publishing line-up.They also have this important note at the end:
Manuscript evaluation is done within the first quarter of every year (January - March). Submissions later than the first quarter will be evaluated for the succeeding year.The -ber months are upon us, which means the year is coming to an end. Now would be a good time to submit something for evaluation. Got a short story compilation you've always wanted to put together? A finished novel? A poetry collection? An anthology you've finished with friends? Send in your proposals!
Deadlines! Deadlines!
1. Dean Alfar has posted the final call for submissions to Philippine Speculative Fiction vol. 3. Deadline is on September 15.
2. Philippine Genre Stories is accepting Christmas-themed stories for its December special until October 5.
3. The Fully Booked contest I linked to earlier has an October 31 deadline.
Submit, submit!
Dean Alfar Invites You to the Launch of the Kite of Stars
From his blog:
Congrats ulit, Sir Dean! :)Click the invite for a larger image - and please help spread the word. The book will be available at Powerbooks, National Bookstore, Bestsellers and other fine bookstores. You can also order directly from the publisher, Anvil.
2007 National Book Awards and Palanca Award Winners
Tin of Read or Die has posted a list of the National Book award winners at the Read or Die blog.
Ian Rosales Casocot has posted the link to the list of 2007 Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature winners on his blog.
Congrats to the winners!
2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards
Fully Booked presents the 2nd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards.
Calling all Filipino writers, artists, and just about anyone with a wild imagination! Neil Gaiman wants YOU to join this nationwide writing competition to seek out excellent work in two categories: comics and prose fiction. The contest starts on September 1 and deadline of submission of entries is on October 31, 2007. Over P300,000 in prizes, including P100,000 grand prize for the first place winners! COMIC BOOK WRITING CONTEST: 1st Prize - P100,000 2nd Prize - P30,000 3rd Prize - P15,000 SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR WRITING CONTEST: 1st Prize - P100,000 2nd Prize - P30,000 3rd Prize - P15,000Download the contest guidelines and the official application form here.
RX 93.1 Spotlight on the Manila International Book Fair, Philippine Speculative Fiction, and Read or Die
Charles has posted a recording of the RX 93.1 interview of Dean Alfar of the LitCritters, Kristin Mandigma of Read or Die, Gwen Galvez of Anvil Publishing, and Blooey Singson of the Manila International Book Fair.
He's also posted transcripts of some excerpts from the interview. Thanks, Charles!
Please note, Kristin Mandigma of Read or Die is going to be on radio again tonight at Jam 88.3, 9-10 PM. She will be reading some poetry and promoting the Manila Book Fair.
The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories Vol.3 is Out!
Philippine Genre Stories Vol.3 is Out! Look out for Volume 3 of Philippine Genre Stories, on sale at the Anvil Publishing booth at the Manila Book Fair. I was able to finally catch up on all three volumes for only P285!
Incidentally, the last day of the Fair is tomorrow. There will be a literary cosplay that should be worth seeing, among many other fun activities. Be there!
The LitCritters on Philippine Speculative Fiction
I attended the LitCritters' talk on speculative fiction on the first day of the Manila International Book Fair armed only with my trusty WinX notebook and cell phone camera, so I'm afraid I wasn't able to get any clear shots or recordings. But I'd like to share what I learned there, and I hope I'll be able to present my notes in an orderly fashion, because a lot of interesting things were said.
I've also taken the liberty of linking to some of the recommended stories, so you can read them online. If there are any that I missed, please feel free to comment with links to them, and I'll add them right away.
The speakers were Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Vin Simbulan, Kate Aton-Osias, Alex Osias and Andrew Drilon. They each spoke of the different forms speculative fiction in the Philippines could take.
Dean Alfar opened the talk by defining Philippine speculative fiction as "the literature of the fantastic." It is fiction written by Filipinos that asks "What if?" or "How about if?" This sort of writing has not always been welcome in "serious" literary circles, he said, since traditionally, all other stories seem unimportant compared to "realistic" stories.
But while writers are being taught to write fiction that matters, young people (writers and readers) want what matters to them. There is now a decline in the number of Filipino readers, because of the need to prioritize what we read. (more…)