Author Alfred Yuson to lecture on ‘Fake News Fiction’ on February 20

This is a press release from the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas. 

MANILA, Philippines – Award-winning writer and columnist Alfred “Krip” Yuson will deliver the 2017 Adrian Cristobal Lecture, which will be held on Monday, February 20, at 2 pm, at Function Room 1, AIM Conference Center Manila, JV del Rosario Building, Benavidez corner Trasierra streets, Legaspi Village, Makati City. His lecture is entitled “Evolving Genres of the Written Word: ‘Fake News Fiction’ and the Like(s).”

The Adrian E. Cristobal Lecture Series was established by the Cristobal family, in collaboration with the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas or the Writers’ Union of the Philippines. It aims to honor the intellectual legacy of the late renowned writer and former Umpil chairperson whose name the series carries.

In this annual event, a Filipino public intellectual delivers a keynote speech on a topic related to a current socio-political condition in the country or a cultural development. The past lecturers include Gemino Abad (2011), National Artist Virgilio Almario (2012), Resil Mojares (2013), Reynaldo Ileto (2014), Solita Monsod (2015), and Marites D. Vitug (2016).

Yuson proposes to reflect on the changing modes of genre writing in the age of social media. The summary of his lecture states that “it will be in/an appreciation of the global pivot to a curiously novel inclusion among the genres of writing. While it started with a fringe kind of journalism – blogs and trolling on social media – the initially questionable purveyance of fake or false news has seeped into established tri-media, with prominent personalities, mostly related to politics, spewing mind-toggling conundrums or seemingly oxymoronic terms such as ‘alternative facts, post-truth, default narrative, and creative interpretation.’ These are now the syndromes that stupefy us who are worshipful of the word, written or expressed in any which way.” 

Yuson has authored 28 books thus far, including novels, poetry collections, short fiction, essays, children’s stories, biographies, and coffee-table books, apart from having edited various titles that include several literary anthologies.

He has gained numerous distinctions, including the 2009 Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas from Umpil, the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan award from the City of Manila, and the SEAWrite (SouthEast Asian Writers) Award for lifetime achievement. He has also been elevated to the Hall of Fame of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. His poetry and prose have been translated into 10 languages. He co-founded the Philippine Literary Arts Council, the Creative Writing Foundation, Inc. (CWF), and Manila Critics Circle, and served as chairman of Umpil.

He has taught fiction and poetry at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he held the Henry Lee Irwin Professorial Chair. He serves as Philippines editor for MANOA: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, published by the University of Hawaii. He contributes a weekly arts and culture column to The Philippine Star and a monthly column to Illustrado magazine published in Dubai. 

This event is open to the public. Admission is free. For more details, please contact John Iremil Teodoro, Umpil secretary general, at 09158834917 or email: jieteodoro@gmail.com or Michael Coroza, Umpil president at mcoroza@ateneo.edu. – Rappler.com