Apologies for the delay in updating this website, we’re re-designing the entire RoD portal and the updates should be up by the weekned. In the meantime, here’s the schedule for the Non-Fiction series of Write Or Die this January 2008:

January 12 (Saturday): Maribel Garcia
Science Writing
Powerbooks Greenbelt, 2-4PM

January 20 (Sunday): Isagani Cruz
Writing Literary Criticism
Powerbooks Greenbelt, 2-4PM

January 26 (Saturday):Butch Dalisay
Creative Non-Fiction
Powerbooks Megamall, 2-4PM

The first session of Write Or Die featuring Dean Alfar was a roaring success. Dean Alfar posted about the event here. Charles Tan has a downloadable audio recording here and a partial transcript here. Kenneth Yu also sent us his photos of the event. (Read our blog entry at the Read Or Die blog.)

Charlson Ong and Jun Cruz Reyes will critique chapter excerpts from novel-length manuscripts during their respective workshop sessions. Jun Cruz Reyes will handle Filipino manuscripts while Charlson Ong will concentrate on English pieces. If you wish to have your work critiqued, please send your excerpt to readordie.ph@gmail.com on or before November 8 (for Jun Cruz Reyes) and November 18 (for Charlson Ong).

A maximum of five manuscripts will be discussed. First come, first served. Only one chapter submission will be entertained per person. Thank you.

Read Or Die and the UP Institute of Creative Writing in cooperation with Powerbooks present the first series of Write Or Die: Writers Write lecture-workshops. The workshops will be held every weekend from November 2007 to February 2008 in different Powerbooks branches and will be moderated by some of the best writers in the country. The purpose of the workshops is to promote the UP Gawad Centennial Likhaan 2008, a special literary prize sponsored by the University of the Philippines as it celebrates its centennial year in 2008.

We would especially like to encourage people who are not professional or academe-based writers to attend the workshops and submit their works for consideration to the Gawad Likhaan. Teachers are welcome to bring their students to the talks. No reservations are needed.

The workshops will have four areas: Fiction (November 2007-December 2007), Non-Fiction (January 2008), and Poetry (February 2008).

The schedule for the Fiction workshops is as follows:

Dean Alfar
November 10, 2007
Powerbooks Megamall
2PM - 4PM

Jun Cruz Reyes
November 17, 2007
Powerbooks Trinoma
2PM - 4PM

Amelia Lapena Bonifacio
November 24, 2007
Powerbooks Trinoma
2PM - 4PM

Charlson Ong
December 1, 2007
Powerbooks Trinoma
2PM - 4PM

Admission is FREE and open to the public.

For author profiles please visit this page.

For your questions and suggestions please email us at readordie.ph@gmail.com or call us at 09283555365. Thank you.

Write Or Die semi-officially launches at the Manila International Book Fair as part of Ang Bagong Libro with a performance reading competition featuring university-based writing groups. The event is called–and this doesn’t bode well for our stated mission to encourage creativity through writing–Write Or Die. “The Author Is Dead” is funny and pretty straightforward but semioticians might not appreciate it. Oh, who cares, right? The list of participants is still under development but we already have confirmed judges. You wouldn’t guess. Keep posted for further details in this site or in our blog.