Filipino Writer (dot) com

The Internet never cease to amaze me.

With the help of my tracking system, I'm able to see who visits and referrers to my blog. Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to find the KUTING Workshop announcement in Filipino Writer.com. My discovery of Filipino Writer.com was a timely one. Fueled by the Philippine Literature discussion in Ian Casocot's blog and in Dean Alfar's observations on what it means to be "literary" in the Filipino novel in his blog, I began crawling the web for publishing opportunities for Filipino writers. I told myself at that time that If I find one, I'll blog about it and promote its readership.

Winning awards left and right is one thing, but being read is another. A writer may win accolades and awards for writing exceptional literature, but if it is not published (in the case of some Palanca winners) read, reviewed, discussed, tried and talked about, the writer's work is dead. Filipino librarians have a stake in helping Philippine literature come live. We can nurture Philippine literaure.

And so, I am encouraging my subscribers and readers to go visit Filipino Writer.com. Read the many works of Filipino writers there. Be a member (free). Comment and give feedback on the writings, articles and literature.

It's objectives are the following:

FilipinoWriter.com aims to help every kind of Filipino writer –- technical, commercial and literary -- improve his or her lot, especially financially. It also aims to encourage Filipinos to read works by Filipino writers, and thus promote a "reading culture" among Filipinos. Finally, Filipinowriter.com aims to popularize Filipino-written works in the international scene.

I hope the girl who wrote Butch Dalisay gets to read this. Or better still, discover Filipino Writer.com. Can someone send the email of Butch Dalisay?