Question One: Who would you want to see as editor/s for a genuine anthology of Contemporary Philippine Fiction?
Question Two: Who would you want to see included in a genuine anthology of Contemporary Philippine Fiction?
Question Three: Do we already have a genuine anthology of Contemporary Philippine Fiction? Why/Why not?
@AD: Hmmm that's a lot of questions. However, lemme throw you a few questions of my own as befits a curious cat who's not knowledgeable about these things.
ReplyDelete1. How would you define the qualifications of an editor of such an anthology? Is it age? Experience? Publishing credits/awards? Does it matter if they have or don't have the said qualifications?
In this case, I hear that most of the older writers forgo reading contemporary literature because time, etc. If this is true, how do they judge what is new? How are they qualified to know what is new?
2. Who SHOULD be included in the anthology? Is contemporary defined as an age bracket (those younger than say 40 years old)? Or is it those who are getting published presently? Does volume of published material matter in cases like these? Is it a matter of qualifications (again) like awards and publishing credits?
There's also a question of sourcing the material. The literary community is a small one in that usually those published are known-- not necessarily personally, mind-- unless, of course, it's an open call. In other words, is the literary sources of these anthologies limited to the usual (the top schools like UP, UST, Ateneo, etc.)? What are the chances of a writer who doesn't go around these literary circles and is not from a top school being included in such an anthology (barring questions of story quality, of course).
3. The only on-going anthology I see that's running is the Likhaan. Does that count?
Hehe sorry for so many questions...
"Genuine" my ass. The true problem is the word "genuine" itself, as if "contemporary" and "philippine" and "fiction" are not sites of inquiry, discussion, practice -- there's no such thing as a "genuine" anthology of contemporary philippine fiction, there are only viewpoints, always biased, sometimes stupidly so, on what "contemporary philippine fiction" consists.
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