In 2004, August Highland of the Muse Apprentice Guild (sadly defunct) urged me to write about my experiences as a child who grew up with parents who worked as agents of the Philippine communist movement for an issue of the net-based mag he ran.
This issue would feature artists and writers who have "experienced reprisal , human right violations or condemnation because of their works; or whose works are a product of, or greatly influenced by, their political experiences or background."
There was an added note of hesitation at the end of the letter that, while polite, was still insistent: "this would be invaluable for readers to read first-hand experience -- please consider this karl -- i understand if it's not something you want to remember and write about."
Oh, fuck it. I wrote an essay in a feverish three days, barely spell-checking it and, almost with eyes closed, sent the thing to Mr. Highland. Which he published almost verite, to my chagrin at all the errors and typos I only noticed after wards. That essay used to be here under a different title.
Fast forward to 2009 and Dr. Jing Hidalgo is telling me they liked the essay and are putting it out in the UP Institute of Creative Writing's Journal or Likhaan 3. Since it's an institutional journal it also apparently counts as a sort of, kind of academic award. That's a first for me right there. And the darn thing is now in print format! Yey!
Thanks UP ICW and Mr. Highland. Hooray for the fairly long history behind "Report from the Abyss." : D