The Taboan Writers Festival is an annual gathering of writers from all over the country and across generations. A flagship project of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Taboan Festival takes place during February, officially recognized through Presidential Proclamation No. 683 as National Arts Month.
“Taboan” is a Visayan word for “market.” The Festival sets up shop in a different region every year, and every year for three days, writers, readers, scholars, researchers, and lovers of Philippine literature trade diverse ideas about culture, history and the literary arts. In this way, the Festival becomes an exciting venue for writers to interact with one another and with their audience, all in celebration of the written word.
A Brief History of the Festival
In 2009 the first Taboan was set in Luzon in three Metro Manila venues: the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Ateneo de Manila University, and Cubao X. Taboan 2010, which was also the year in which the Taboan Awards were introduced, happened at the Casino Español de Cebu in the Visayas. Taboan 2011 was hosted in the Royal Mandala Hotel of Davao City in Mindanao. Coming back to Luzon in its fourth year, the Taboan Writers Festival will open on February 9, 2012 at the Convention Hall of Fontana Leisure Parks in Clark, Pampanga.
The Taboan Delegates
Official participants in the Taboan Festivals consist of the most prolific and prodigious of the country’s poets, fiction writers, playwrights, essayists and mixed media artists. Among this set are authors with remarkable bodies of work and who have garnered recognition as National Artists for Literature, Palanca Hall of Fame Awardees, or recipients of various national and international prizes.
The Festival allows writers to share the personal, political, cultural, socioeconomic and/or possibly marginalized aspects of their literary undertakings. Local and national writers’ organizations will share in this enrichment of Philippine literature, along with universities and schools, particularly their students, faculty members, and researchers.
Taboan Activities
Among the staple events of the Taboan Festivals are a conference, a book fair, Taboan Awards, and performances by local artists’ groups, all of which are open to the public and free of charge, thanks to the NCCA and overwhelming support from the local communities.
