A THOMASIAN instructor was named Poet of the Year during the 2025 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards (NJLA) at Luxent Hotel, Quezon City.
Joel Toledo, a literature professor and resident fellow at the UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies, bagged the award for his ekphrasis poem “Saint Paul de Mausole: Sonnet.”
“During the pandemic, I was interested in writing ekphrasis poetry, which are poems about art. So I was researching the lives of famous painters and artists, visual artists,” Toledo told the Varsitarian.
Toledo said his winning poem sprang from a “what-if” question about Vincent van Gogh’s stay at the St. Paul de Mausole asylum, where the painter battled mental illness.
“So I imagined, what if—while he was there—while healing, that’s when he was able to paint the drafts. Gano’n naman ang tula. Hindi naman trabaho ng tula na magsabi ng totoo per se, but magsabi ng puwede,” he said.
The citation read, “It is a brief but incandescent act of ekphrasis, a poem that remakes Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’ in language that is at once tender and restless.”
The three-time Carlos Palanca awardee encouraged young poets to turn envy into ambition by reading widely and finding inspiration in the works of other writers.
“If you just want to be a poet for the image and not for the work, then you will not be a good poet,” Toledo said.
Toledo has authored three poetry collections: “Chiaroscuro,” published by the UST Publishing House in 2008, “The Long Lost Startle,” published by UP Press in 2009, and “Ruins and Reconstructions,” released by Anvil Publishing in 2011.
Literature alumnus George Deoso bagged first place in fiction for his short story “Dial “D” for Desire.”
UST Education and Graduate School alumnus Paulino Lim Jr. won third place for “The X-Ray Tech’s Love Story.”
The NJLA is an annual literary contest organized by Philippines Graphic to recognize writers who have contributed short stories and poems to the magazine during the past publication year.
It is held in celebration of the legacy of Nick Joaquin, National Artist for Literature and the magazine’s former editor in chief.
