Local poet launches poetry book

This July 14, 1 pm, local writers collective Nagkahiusang Magsusulat sa Cagayan de Oro (Nagmac), in collaboration with the Capitol University College of Arts and Sciences and Department of English and Humanities, will launch “Basâ basa,” a book-length collection of ‘balak’ or poems in Binisaya written by poet, editor, and Nagmac senior fellow Ton Daposala and published by Xavier University Press, at the Capitol University Art Gallery.

The book launching will also consist of live poetry readings, book signing, musical performances, live art installation, author craft talk & interview, and an open mic. ‘Basâ basa’, according to poet, literary scholar, and professor Zola Gonzalez-Macarambon, collects the “voyeuristic dreams, slow burning encounters with desire, love in its timeless spaces” in urban and suburbia of Northern Mindanao. Copies will be sold at P250 each.

Daposala, a shortlistee of the 2013 Labing Masaarong Bag-ong Magsusulat sa Bisaya of the Manila Bulletin’s Bisaya Magazine, currently teaches literature and creative writing at Capitol University and studies MA Literature at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan. He serves as Nagmac’s director for creative development and as editor for poetry of the Bulawan Literary Journal of Northern Mindanao. An alumnus of the UP National Writers Workshop and the Iligan National Writers Workshop, he will serve as an issue editor of the forthcoming Payag Habagatan Special Issue on Contemporary Philippine Poetry in Binisaya. (nagmac)