Silliman University English faculty member wins multiple 2023 Palanca awards

Asst. Prof. Ian Fermin Casocot, multi-awarded writer, wins three 2023 Palanca Awards. (Photo taken from Casocot’s Facebook account)

Silliman University (SU) Department of English and Literature faculty member Asst. Prof. Ian Fermin Casocot won second place in three literary genres of the 2023 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Contest.

His entry, “Don’t Follow Me, I Don’t Even Know Where I’m Going” was adjudged second place for the short story category.

“The Midsummer of Manuel Arguilla,” his entry for the one-act play category, also won second place.

His third second place win is for his poem, “Bisaya for All that We Gugma,” for the Poetry Written for Children Category.

He will receive his awards in a ceremony to be held on November 27, 2023 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Casocot has won many writing awards, including several Palanca Awards. He teaches literature and creative writing courses in SU and is also a resident writer of the Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center whose flagship program is the Silliman University National Writers Workshop, considered to be the longest running workshop in Asia.

Established in 1950, the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature is named after Don Carlos Palanca Sr. According to its website, the Palanca Awards aims to develop Philippine literature “by providing incentives for writers to craft their most outstanding literary works, by being a treasury of the Philippines’ literary gems from our gifted writers, and [by assisting] in their eventual dissemination to our people, particularly students.”