THE CENTER for Creative Writing and Studies (CCWS) held entrance examinations for aspiring members of the Thomasian Writers’ Guild (TWG) at the St. Raymund’s Building last January 23, 26, and February 1, paving the way for the Center’s plans to make the moribund guild its official student writers’ arm.
“This will be the Center’s answer to growing observations that the quality of writers in the University is declining,” Ophelia Dimalanta, director of the CCWS, told the Varsitarian.
The TWG, an organization composed of poets and creative and non-creative fictionists, was among inactive campus organizations featured by the Varsitarian in a June 2007 Special Reports article.
As the official student arm of the CCWS, guild members will revive writing-related projects and participate in writing seminars, Dimalanta said.
As an initial salvo, the “refortified” guild will hold a poetry-reading session at the end of February, which will also see the release of the new issue of Tomas, the Center’s official publication.
The literary folio Dapitan of the Flame, the official publication of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, will also be launched.
Dimalanta said that the revival of the writers’ guild will finally give justice to the group’s name.
“The reorganization of the guild would be such so that the members would come from all the colleges of the University, not just from AB,” she said.
Palanca awardee Eros Atalia and poets Carlomar Daoana and Manolito Sulit will supervise the newly revived guild.
