Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino to Launch First-Ever Sebwano Novel in Filipino

Walay Igsoon, the first-ever Sebwano novel written by the first Sebwano novelist Juan Villagonzalo, will be launched by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) in this year’s Philippine International Literary Festival (PILF).

Published in 1912—more than a century ago—Walay Igsoon, which means “without a brother,” is a story of two brothers who got orphaned and separated from each other because of the cruelties of the Spanish occupation—a separation that will later tear them apart as brothers because of the differences in their beliefs and in the social class they each belong to. At the heart of the novella is the issue of emigration as experienced by Filipino workers of that time in search for greener pastures, an issue which still rings true as evidenced by the existence of OFWs today.

To be launched is a bilingual edition of the book which contains the original Sebwano text of Walay Igsoon and its Filipino translation entitiled Walang Kapatid translated by Mr. Roderick Villaflor, a Filipino teacher from the University of San Carlos, Cebu City. Also included in the book’s bilingual edition is an introduction from KWF’s Commissioner for the Sebwano Language Commissioner Hope Yu.

The launch will be on Thursday, 27 April 2017, 5:00pm, in QCX Museum, Quezon City. It will be followed by the awarding of “Sali(n) Na, Poe!,” a literary translation contest for kids aged 12-17, also by the KWF. Both events are part of the two-day Philippine International Literary Festival 2017 headed by the National Book Development Board (NBDB). (KWF)