So the voting period for the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards is open till today. I don’t have a book nominated, but After the Storm (Edited by Elbert Or) is up for Best Essay Anthology, and I have an essay in it. I didn’t have the harrowing experience during typhoon Ondoy that a lot of other people had, but I during typhoon Ruping in the 90s, we did experience having the roof blown off our apartment and we had to live in a pension house for a week. I could’ve written something about that in my perspective on the Ondoy tragedy, but I didn’t actually know about the anthology, and so I just posted something not-so-serious on this blog. Elbert contacted me and asked me if I wanted to include it in the anthology he was editing, and I said yes, of course — the proceeds were going to go to victims of Ondoy, after all. Two years later, I find out it’s up for a Readers’ Choice Award, and so I’ve been asking everyone to please vote for it. Again, voting period ends today, so please head on over to the voting page now and give After the Storm some love.
The essays in After the Storm were mostly written in the midst of and immediately after the recent typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. The writers share their experiences of the typhoons, their insights and reflections, their hopes and aspirations. Long after the news media has moved on to the next big headline, After the Storm hopes to stand as a written record to remind everyone that this happened. We were there. We are still here.
