Eljay C. Deldoc, Paulo C. Marcelo, Joel B. Manuel, and Sigrid Marianne P. Gayangos are the winners of this year’s National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Writers’ Prize, a biennial award given to five writers, one for each category, namely; for poetry, novel, essay/creative non-fiction, short story, and drama.

Deldoc bested the Drama category in Filipino language for his entry titled “Atin-Atin Lang;” Marcelo on the other hand won the Essay/Creative Non-Fiction category in Kapampangan language for his entry titled “Ing Purmeru: Sanese ibat king Talapamalitang Kapampangan;” Manuel for the Novel category in Ilokano language for his entry titled “Dispersiones;” and Gayangos for the Short Story category in Chavacano language for her entry titled “El Vida Encantao.”

A gross amount of two hundred fifty thousand pesos (PhP250,000) each will be given to the winner for assistance during the writing stage of the project, which is good for one year, after which a manuscript of the writing project will be submitted to the NCCA, particularly its National Committee on Literary Arts (NCLA) for possible publication or staging.

The online awarding ceremony is set to happen on December 13 2021, Monday, 7PM, via NCCA Facebook page and YouTube channel. Performance by Abet Umil and excerpt readings from the winners will also be highlighted during the ceremony.

For more details on this event, kindly contact the Arts Prize Secretariat through artsprizencca@gmail.com or (02) 8527-2192 loc. 508 or 517.