By Peter Solis Nery

MILAN — The competitive category of the 2024 Peter’s Prize for Adapted Story closed the online submission period with 50 entries received from August 21 to August 31. Of these, 49 were qualified and accepted to the contest.

Named after the most awarded Ilonggo writer and founder of The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. (established in 2012), the prize was first given in 2013 for excellence in writing Hiligaynon love poems and very, very short stories. 

Since then, the contest has expanded to other literary categories including stories for children, flash fiction, Covid and pandemic literature, essay, play, and such categories as horror stories, poetry inspired by a story, poetry by 21 and under; and in three languages, namely: Hiligaynon,  Filipino, and English. 

The prize also extended to other art forms like visual arts (painting), and film (specializing on the three-minute silent form). The Peter Solis Nery Foundation International Film Festival (ThePSNFIFF), often dubbed as “the smallest and most quiet film festival in the world” because of its three-minute silent films, is a biennial event started in 2019, ran through the pandemic in 2021, was seen once more last year, and will run again in 2025.  

Additionally, The PSN Foundation, which gives out the awards, honors outstanding cultural workers and artists with the Special Peter’s Prize in Cultural Dissemination, Literary Studies, Literary Translation, and Theatre Arts, among artistic and cultural endeavors.

This year, the Special Prize for Excellence in Cultural Dissemination is awarded to Dr. Christine Godinez Ortega of Iligan City for her pioneering and active work as founding chair of the Mindanao Creative Writers & Cultural Workers Group, Inc.. Ortega is also the co-founder and long-time director of the Iligan National Writers’ Workshop.

For this year, entries to the Adapted Story category will be shortlisted by writer and founder Peter Solis Nery himself before they are passed on to an independent jury that will choose the eventual winners who will receive cash prizes and certificates. Furthermore, the first prize winner will get the coveted Peter’s Prize medallion (specially crafted, and only 36 has been awarded in history so far); and the official commission as the Literature Ambassador of The PSN Foundation.

Announcement of contest winners and awarding of prizes will take place sometime in November, around the 12th anniversary of the Foundation.

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Peter Solis Nery is a multi-awarded Filipino poet, fictionist, filmmaker and playwright who divides his time living in the Philippines and traveling around the world. He is a Palanca Awards Hall of Famer, and the first Filipino author invited to the Sharjah International Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates.