The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) through its Program Management Division (PMD) – Arts Section, congratulates the winners for the 2023 NCCA WRITERS’ PRIZE.

The NCCA Writers’ Prize is a biennial award given to five writers, one for each category, namely; for poetry, novel, essay/creative non-fiction, short story, and drama.

The 2023 installment of the prize ended its call for entries last July 31, 2023. The categories with their respective languages for this year are as follows: Ibaloy Poetry, Filipino Novel, Bikol Essay/Creative Non-Fiction, Pangasinan Short Story, and Cebuano Drama. The participants were judged via blind adjudication, in which the deliberations were concluded last October 10, 2023 via Zoom online, and winners were declared by a prestigious Board of Jury for each of the five categories.

After careful deliberations, Melvin C. Magsanoc, Emmanuel T. Barrameda, Jaime Jesus U. Borlagdan, Eva C. Visperas, and Neil Arkhe P. Azcuna are declared winners for the 2023 NCCA Writers’ Prize.

Magsanoc, with his entry entitled “The Elusive Kombilan: Writing Versions of the Ibaloy Ta-miya ‘Bangon, bangon ka Ina,,” won the Ibaloy Poetry category, while Barrameda bested the Filipino Novel category with his entry entitled, “Buno.” On the other hand, Borlagdan, for his work entitled “Kaoroirarumi,” Visperas, for her work entitled “Inkadenan Aro,” and Azcuna, for his work entitled “Mahigmata sa Gugma og Mahika,” won the Bikol Essay/Creative Non-Fiction, Pangasinan Short Story, and Cebuano Drama categories respectively.

The award, in the gross amount of TWO HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND PESOS (PhP250,000) subject to government accounting and auditing rules and regulations on withholding tax amounting to P50,000, will assist the winner during the writing stage of the project. The award is good for one year, after which a polished final 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 awarding ceremony is set to happen on December 9, 2023 at the NCCA Auditorium. Further announcements will be made once details of the event are finalized.