AN ARTLETS instructor has been hailed Poet of the Year at Philippines Graphic’s 2025 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards, an annual competition organized by the country’s longest-running literary magazine.
Creative Writing instructor Joel Toledo, a three-time Palanca awardee, was recognized as the lone winner in the Best Poet category for his piece “Saint Paul de Mausole: Sonnet,” on Thursday, August 28, at the Luxent Hotel.
Toledo’s winning piece is a part of his sequence of ekphrastic poems, or poetry written in response to art, some of which appeared in his latest book Planet Nine (UST Publishing House, 2023).
According to Toledo, the poem sets up a “what-if” scenario about Vincent Van Gogh inside an asylum, just before the birth of his opus “The Starry Night.”
While he believed that it was a very powerful poem, Toledo said the subject and form of the poem made him cynical about its chances of winning, expecting that social realist works with less restrictions would have an edge.
“A part of me was demeaning the poem because it wasn’t the poem that I would write that is quite longish and kilometric. So it’s a championing of the power of the sonnet, in my opinion, and I’m very happy to know that,” Toledo told The Flame.
“There’s this little tendency to think that for big awards like the Graphic, a longer poem, a more — I don’t wanna say necessarily Filipino — but a more social realist poem would have won. But kudos to them for respecting that a form that is centuries-old can still win in the 21st century,” he added.
Toledo recalled that he used to be the literary editor of the Philippines Graphic’s competitor publication, the now-defunct Philippines Free Press from 2011 to 2014.
“To be awarded by the supposed, quote-unquote, rival magazine, was, I don’t know, bittersweet for the Philippine Free Press that already closed down, but very happy and grateful as well to the editors,” he said.
The poet said that prestige is secondary to transformation, highlighting the importance of continuously seeking for the next opportunity.
“What’s more important is what you’re becoming, and in my opinion as a writer, you have to pursue that track: becoming the writer that you promised yourself when you were younger that you wanted to be,” Toledo said.
“If you’ve written a poem you know that it’s always a process. Even years later, you’re gonna go back to a published book and say ‘Nag-iba na ‘yung sensibility ko, so gusto ko na irevise siya,” he added.
The Poet of the Year awardee expressed optimism on the state of poetry in the country, citing new emerging works like erasure poetry and graphic poetry.
“I think our future is very bright with so many people writing very experimental poetry of late…It’s an exciting time, especially that a lot of Filipino poets are writing against the grain,” he said.
The contest also honored the three best works in the fiction category. The winners include Literature and Graduate School alumnus George Deoso, who bagged first place for his work “Dial ‘D’ for Desire.” Education and Graduate School alumnus Paulino Lim Jr., who was conferred the lifetime achievement award Parangal Hagbong in 2016 by UST, won third place in the same category for his work “The X-Ray Tech’s Love Story.”
Among 76 awardees, seven Artlets were given the Graphic Salute, an accolade given to writers whose works have been featured in the Philippines Graphic Reader.
Creative Writing Assoc. Prof. Ralph Semino Galan was recognized for his piece “Two Poems for the Road.” Blanca Datuin, a former editor of Philets publication Blue Quill, was awarded the Graphic Salute for her work “A King Lear in Cage.”
Veteran journalist and former The Flame adviser Nestor Cuartero received an honor for “Rush Hour.” UP Diliman Prof. Jose Wendell Capili, who also served as The Flame’s editor-in-chief, won a Graphic Salute for his work “Slaughterhouse Poems.”
Literature sophomore Ivan Roces was honored for his piece “If I Could be Free,” while Creative Writing junior RJ Garcia and senior Ysabel Javier were also feted for their works “Amen” and “Gantsilyo,” respectively.
The Nick Joaquin Literary Awards is an annual contest recognizing the best entries to the Philippines Graphic Reader, the Philippines Graphic’s companion literary magazine. Originally called Philippines Graphic Literary Awards, it was renamed in 2004 after the death of its current namesake.
Joaquin was the magazine’s first editor-in-chief after it returned to the bookstands in 1990, breaking its hiatus since the Weekly Graphic was shut down by the Marcos regime. The National Artist obtained his Associate of Arts degree at UST in 1949 and was granted a scholarship to attend St. Albert’s Priory in Hong Kong.
This year’s celebration marks the beginning of a two-year countdown towards the centennial anniversary of Philippines Graphic. F
