Prize-winning poet Daoana launches newest poetry collection

Award-winning poet Carlomar Arcangel Daoana launched on February 2 his latest book of poems, Loose Tongue, Poems: 2001-2013 (University of Santo Tomas [UST] Publishing House), at the Henry Sy Sr. Hall of De La Salle University (DLSU) in Malate, Manila.

As part of the book launch, which was organized by the DLSU Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center and the UST Publishing House, Daoana delivered a lecture, titled “Love Letters as Poetry,” in which he explored, “against the backdrop of their demise, love letters as enduring sites of poetic evocations.”

The launch also saw UST Director Dr. John Jack Wigley present the first copies of the book to Daoana, as well as the reading of select poems from Loose Tongue by Palanca award-winning writers Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta, Dinah Roma and Allan Justo Pastrana; Kim Cantillas; Brylle Tabora; Sarah Ramos; and Daoana himself.

Loose Tongue is Daoana’s fourth book of poems. His previous poetry collections are Marginal Bliss (University of the Philippines Press, 2002), The Fashionista’s Book of Enlightenment (DBW, 2009) and Clairvoyance (UST Publishing House, 2011).

Daoana won first prize in the Poetry in English category at the 2012 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature for his collection “The Elegant Ghost”, and second prize in the same category at the same competition in 2013 for “Crown for Maria.” He also won the Purita Kalaw Ledesma Prize for Art Criticism of the Ateneo Art Awards in 2014.

Daoana received his AB Literature degree from the UST and has served as a junior associate for poetry at the UST Center for Creative Writing and Studies. He writes an art column for The Philippine Star and is taking up his Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree at DLSU. ALVIN I. DACANAY

Loose Tongue, Poems: 2001-2013 is available at the UST Publishing House, Beato Angelico Bldg., University of Santo Tomas, España Boulevard, Manila. For more information, call 406-1611, local 8252 or 8278.