SU Nat’l Writers Workshop holds tribute night for César Ruiz Aquino
The 61st Silliman University National Writers Workshop (SUNWW) Committee and the SU Edilberto and Edith Tiempo Creative Writing Center held a tribute poetry night for renowned Sillimanian poet, Dr. César “Sawi” Ruiz Aquino, July 5, 2023 at Libraria Bookstore, Dumaguete City.
The event, titled “Ceasura,” focused on sharing Aquino’s work with the public through poetry reading and recognizing Aquino’s contributions to Philippine literature and the SUNWW.
Aquino also received a token from the organizers, which was a framed print of his poem titled “Go Flying.”
Assoc. Prof. Alana Leilani T. Cabrera-Narciso, SU English and Literature Department chairperson, shared a biography of Aquino during the event:
“César Ruiz Aquino was born during the extremely uncertain time that was World War II in which he lost his father; a captain and peacetime judge of Iligan, Lanao. He was born and raised in Zamboanga and has a Ph.D. in Literature from Silliman University.
Under Edith Tiempo, he wrote his dissertation entitled ‘Poetry as Mythos: The Fallacy of the Rational Heritage’ and earned his Ph.D. at Silliman University, where he has been teaching creative writing and literature since 1981.
His writing career began when Philippine Graphic published his story ‘Noon and Summer’ written in 1961. At age 19, in 1962, he received an invitation to the first Silliman National Writers Summer Workshop in Dumaguete that included as fellows Wilfrido D. Nolledo, Jose Lansang Jr., and Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez, as well as mentors Nick Joaquin, Franz Arcellana and Edilberto Tiemp and Edith Tiempo. Like his mentors, he has served as [a] resident panelist at the continuing annual Silliman Writers Workshop.
He writes both poetry and prose for which he has won virtually all the national awards in the Philippines: the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for poetry two times (1978, 1997) and likewise two times for short fiction (1979, 1989). Other literary awards he has won are the Graphic and the Free Press.
He has received the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas for Lifetime Achievement from the ‘Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas’ (Writers’ Union of the Philippines or UMPIL) in 1997. He was also named ‘National Fellow for Poetry’ by the University of the Philippines Institute of Creative Writing in 2003. The following year (2004) he was the Philippine awardee of the SEA.Write in Thailand.
César Ruiz Aquino’s publications include: ‘Chronicles of Suspicion’ (short fiction and nonfiction, from Kalikasan Press in 1988); ‘Word Without End’ (poems, from Anvil Publishing in 1993); ‘Checkmeta: The Cesar Ruiz Aquino Reader’ (poems and prose; from Midtown Printing Company in 2004); ‘In Samarkand’ (poems, from UST Publishing House in 2008); ‘Caesuras: 155 New Poems’ (UST Publishing House 2013); ‘Like A Shadow That Only Fits A Figure Of Which It Is Not The Shadow’ (UST Publishing House 2014); and ‘Fire If It Were Ice, Ice If It Were Fire’ (Ateneo de Naga Press 2016).
He has two works-in-progress: a new book of poems and a novel.”
