SU alumnus scores historic NJLA three-peat, joins international writers residency in Indonesia

Silliman University (SU) alumnus F. Jordan Carnice, a 2009 graduate of the Bachelor of Arts in English major in Creative Writing program, has marked two major literary milestones: becoming the first three-time Poet of the Year at the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards (NJLA) and being selected for a four-week international writers residency in Indonesia.

Carnice won the 2026 Poet of the Year award for his poetry suite, Three Poems Before 2025, which bested more than 200 entries. The awards ceremony was held on August 27, 2026, at the Luxent Hotel in Quezon City.

The winning suite consists of “Poreuomai,” “You Cannot Change That,” and “2024,” first published in the March 2025 issue of the Philippines Graphic Reader, the monthly literary supplement of the Philippines Graphic. Works published in the Reader automatically qualify for the annual competition.

This year’s NJLA judges were Dr. Jose Wendell Capili, Susan Lara, and Philippines Graphic Reader editor Marra PL. Lanot, who passed away on August 16, 2026.

The 2026 NJLA Poet of the Year announcement and plaque for F. Jordan Carnice, accepted on his behalf by Dr. Elvie B. Razon-Gonzales during the awards ceremony at Luxent Hotel in Quezon City.

Carnice said the recognition came unexpectedly, so much so that he decided not to attend the ceremony.

“The win was a real surprise. I even skipped the ceremony this year, convinced it would go to someone else,” Carnice said. “That’s what’s rewarding about the NJLA because you never see it coming.”

He explained that unlike traditional literary competitions, writers do not directly submit their works for the NJLA. Instead, works published in the magazine are considered for the prize, making the eventual announcement less predictable.

“You get published in the magazine, you get longlisted for a prize, and then one day they just announce the winners,” he said.

The latest recognition establishes an unprecedented record for Carnice in the history of the NJLA. He first earned the Poet of the Year title in 2023 for Four Poems for the Future and followed it with a back-to-back win in 2024 for Two Poems for 2023.

“Winning it twice already felt like an outlier. Three times is just surreal,” Carnice said, adding that he regards literary awards as “bonuses to the real job of a writer.”

For Carnice, however, the recognition also offers possibilities beyond the award itself, particularly in drawing attention to literature’s role in understanding the world and the environment.

“There’s joy in wondering what doors this recognition might open toward better understanding our world, our environment,” he said.

F. Jordan Carnice celebrates with family and loved ones at his home in Tagbilaran City, Bohol, after learning that he had been named Poet of the Year at the 2026 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards (NJLA) on August 27, 2026, days before leaving for his four-week writing residency in the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia.

Carnice dedicated the recognition to his family and loved ones and to Lanot, whom he credited for providing opportunities for writers outside the country’s literary centers.

“This one goes to the writer Marra PL. Lanot, who edited the Philippine Graphic Reader and made space for writers from the regions,” he said.

Four-week residency in Indonesia

Alongside his historic NJLA achievement, Carnice was selected for a four-week residency under the Tulisan Nusantara Writers Program on Cempedak Island in the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia. He is the program’s fifth writer-in-residence and only the second Filipino writer selected for the residency, following Alex Bicharra.

The program invites published authors from across Southeast Asia to create literary works inspired by local island ecology and culture. One writer is hosted each quarter, with the works of eight resident writers eventually compiled into a single volume after the program’s two-year cycle.

Carnice sees his selection as an opportunity that could help open similar spaces for Filipino writers, particularly those from the Visayas.

“What this residency means for me is the possibility that more writers from the Philippines, especially from the Visayas, and as a Bol-anong Bisaya myself, will find the space even for a short while to explore the intersections of culture and environment through literature,” he said.

He particularly pointed to poetry as “a genre capable of being both exacting and sweeping in the same breath.”

The residency also gives Carnice an opportunity to experience a new environment and bring those perspectives back to the communities where he lives and works.

Carnice at one of his literary engagements during residency at Cempedak Island.

“I am excited by what a new place does to the mind’s eye, the new ways of seeing it gradually opens, and what I can carry back to Bohol and Dumaguete,” he said. “With the many crises happening in the world right now, stepping outside the comfort of one’s own ground makes us better participants in the politics of care.”

Carnice’s selection for the residency came after Dr. Helen Moore, a writer and research associate at the University of Gloucestershire, contacted him in 2025. According to Carnice, the program’s artistic director and filmmaker, Ken Kwek, had encountered his poems on Ecopoetikon and considered him as a Philippine representative. He was eventually chosen on the merit of three poems published in the United Kingdom in 2023.

A native of Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Carnice is a writer, visual artist, and cultural worker currently based in Dumaguete City. He works as a researcher for the National Museum of the Philippines and has authored two poetry chapbooks, Weights & Cushions (2018) and How to Make an Accident (2019).

His other literary distinctions include the grand prize in the 2020 Cebu Climate Emergency Literature and Arts Competition for his poem “There is Too Much Light in this World” and the 2025 President Carlos P. Garcia Award for Excellence in Literary Arts.

Carnice has also initiated projects to nurture and preserve Bol-anon literature. He founded the Kinalitkalit Flash Fiction Writing Competition in 2020 and the Tagik Poetry Writing Competition in 2024. He is also founder and co-editor of Pinanlinan, a print anthology series featuring selected works from both competitions and distributed free to schools and public libraries.