On February 10-12, 2010, over a hundred literary pens will be scrawling in Cebu as the city plays host to the national writers’ confab dubbed Taboan: 2^nd Philippine Writers Festival. Taboan is a Cebuano word meaning “gathering” or “trading at the market place.”

Now on its second year, the 2010 Taboan celebration gives the reigns to the Visayan writers. This, according to Ricardo de Ungria, head of the Subcommission on the Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and director of the Philippine International Arts Festival, is for the Visayan authors to have the center stage this year. “Our intention is to make the focus of the Taboan different each year. Last year, the focus was Luzon. For 2010, it will be the Visayas. The year after that will be Mindanao,” he shared.

Highlights of the event are the panel discussions on a plethora of topics about writing such as translation, regional children’s literature, ecoliterature, alternative publishing, writing for a living, writing ethnicity, and writers block, among others. There will also be live workshops, performance poetry presentations, a zarzuela show, and for the first time, a teachers conference on teaching literature.

The event will end with a program recognizing some outstanding Visayan writers: Resil Mojares, Leoncio Deriada, Magdalena Jalandoni (posthumous), Rene Estrella Amper (posthumous), Estrella Alfon (posthumous), Lina Espina Moore (posthumous) and Edilberto Tiempo (posthumous).

The Taboan is part of the month-long national celebration of the arts slated every February. Called the Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF), the grand celebration is in pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 683 signed by President Corazon Aquino in 1991. It is implemented by the NCCA National Committee on Literary Arts with the Arts Council of Cebu Foundation, Inc. as conduit. (SEBenosa)

For details, please contact the NCCA-Public Affairs and Information Office (PAIO) at 527-5529 or 527-2192 loc. 612 to 615; PAIO Head Rene Napeñas at 09275582656; or the NAM Secretariat headed by Vanessa Marquez; or  email at ncca.paio@gmail.com or public_affairs@ncca.gov.ph; or log on to  www.ncca.gov.ph.