I admit I rarely read fiction or short stories written by Filipino writers. It's so lopsided towards foreign writers which was exacerbated by the fact that when I was still in school, there was so much focus on English competency that nobody really bothered about Filipino literature except perhaps the novels that Rizal wrote.
I tried to remedy that situation last year when I bought several books written by local writers and finally reading one, a compilation of short stories written by Palanca winners in the 80s.
This collection is actually an 'embarrassment of riches" as I've discovered some writers here who happen to fit perfectly into the type of stories that I'd love to read. My most favorite was 'Our Lady of Arts and Letters' by Eli Ang Barroso, but I found the stories of Charlson Ong's to be the most intriguing!
Actually, most of the winners are the who's who of contemporary Filipino literature, yun lang, I'm not so sure if all of them eventually wrote novels, which to me, would be the best barometer for a writer to be measured in terms of achievement (unless of course, if he's a poet or essayist).
I don't know yet if they have the anthology for the 2000s but that would be an interesting read as well, because this anthology of 80s short stories truly depicts the decade and the themes that were popular during that particular decade.
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