Novel by Candy Quimpo-Gourlay (HS'80) to be published

PINAY AUTHOR SCORES WORLDWIDE DEAL WITH UK PUBLISHING GIANT - BUT HANDS RP RIGHTS TO PINOY PUBLISHER

Former Inquirer journalist Candy Quimpo Gourlay this week sold her novel TALL STORY to David Fickling Books (DFB), joining a prestigious list that includes John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) and Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass). DFB praises the book as "an outstanding and highly orginal novel".

Candy, who lives in London, however reserved Philippine publication rights for Filipino publisher Ramon "RayVi" Sunico.

Sunico is the manager of Cacho Publishing House, which has pioneered in bringing teen fiction to the Philippine publishing scene.

"It was so important to me that a Pinoy publisher will be the one who brings my writing to the Filipino public. I am thrilled that RayVi is going to be that publisher," Candy said.

In turn, Sunico said, "From the moment I discovered Candy's blog and read the crisp, crackling prose of Tall Story, I knew that getting her read here would benefit not only the growing field of Philippine Young Adult lit but inspire many young Filipinos."

Says Bella Pearson, Editorial Director of DFB: "It isn't often that I am in fits of laughter one minute and in tears the next - TALL STORY is one of the warmest, funniest, most moving books I've read in a long time - and Candy Gourlay is a rare and new voice in children's fiction. We are feeling immensely excited (and smug!) to be able to add her name to the DFB list."

TALL STORY uses the Bernardo Carpio legend and other Philippine folk lore as a stepping off point to tell the story of a teenage boy named Bernardo who grows to eight feet tall. After years separated by immigration paperwork, Bernardo meets his half English sister Andi with by turns hilarious and touching results.

A hardback of TALL STORY will be published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 and later in the United States later in the year. A publication date will soon be announced in the Philippines.

DFB is an imprint of Random House, one of the biggest publishing companies in the world.

"I can't believe my luck. Not only do I get to work with RayVi Sunico who is himself a fabulous poet, but I get to meet David Fickling whom I've always admired - his books are always gorgeously published and his taste is impeccable," Candy said.

Candy moved to the UK in 1989 after she married Richard Gourlay, who was the Manila-based correspondent for the Financial Times of London. In the UK, she became the London correspondent of the news agency Inter Press Service and later the editor of the pan-European magazine Filipinos in Europe. They have three children.

The deal with Fickling and Sunico was negotiated by Candy's agent, Hilary Delamere who represents such high profile children's authors as Raymond Briggs (The Snowman) and Carnegie winning Siobhan Dowd (Bog Child).

Check out Candy's website here.

Read an interview with Candy in Tall Tales and Short Stories Blog.

Read reviews here

Read article on Philippine Daily Inquirer here

Read Candy's email to her classmates here.

Featured Theresian Writers

Featured Theresian Writers

In the Philippine Literary world, there is only one award for which all writers, would-be writers and pseudo-writers aspire: the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards. It is by far the only significant and most enduring literary award. The Palanca Award is the Philippine equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize. It is, therefore, such a great pride for a writer to win a Palanca. It is the criterion upon which their literary competence is measured.

And pride is what the STAAQC feels for four of its Theresian Writers. They dared to test their ability against others just as proficient, and came out the victors.

"Pan de Sal Saves the Day", written by NORMA OLIZON-CHIKIAMCO won for her the First Prize in the Short Story for Children Category of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1995. She started her elementary level at St. Theresa's College, Q.C., finishing seventh grade and high school in STC Baguio, and finally returning to get her bachelor's degree in journalism from STCQC in 1971. Norma is editor in chief of Food Magazine, the largest selling culinary magazine in the Philippines, published by ABS-CBN, and the former editor of Sunday Globe Magazine, Metro Magazine and Celebrity Magazine. She studied under scholarship at the Berlin International Institute for Journalism in Germany and took further studies on magazine management at Syracuse University in New York. She also studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

Her other literary awards include an Outstanding Journalism Award from the Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce. The Best of Food Magazine, a cookbook she edited, was given the National Book Award by the Manila Critics' Circle in 2002. Her works have been published in Hong Kong and Singapore and her cookbooks have been translated into different languages. She and husband Calixto Chikiamco have two daughters.

The multi-awarded JESSICA ZAFRA won the First Prize in the Short Story Category of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1991 with the short story, "Portents". Then in 1993, she won Third Place also in the Short Story Category of the Palanca Awards with the short story, "Bad Boy, Robin, Baad, Baad Boy". "Black" won for Jessica the Third Place in the 1994 Palanca Awards for Literature under the Short Story Category.

Jessica Zafra spent her grade school years in the wide open campus of St. Theresa’s College, Quezon City which she has always called, "a great school". It is the setting for many of her stories and columns where she speaks of memorable episodes in her childhood. Skipping seventh grade, she went to the Philippine Science High School and then to the University of the Philippines where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature. A fiction writer, columnist, editor, publisher and former television and radio host, her writing style is peppered with satire, sarcasm and great wit. She was a Fellow at a UP Summer Writer’s Workshop and at a UP Creative Writing Center's National Writer’s Workshop. Jessica Zafra has published at least 14 books, mostly collections of her columns from the newspapers.

"Blood", won for NOELLE DE JESUS-CHUA the Second Prize for the Short Story Category of the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1995. Based in Singapore, Noelle is a writer and journalist. She has written fiction for various notable literary magazines in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and the United States. In 1997, she was part of the creative team that put up Cosmopolitan Philippines. Noelle de Jesus-Chua was editor of "Fast Food Fiction Short Short Stories To Go" in 2004.

YAVANNA S. VALDELLON won the First Prize in the Poetry Category of the 2004 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards with her collection of poems entitled, "Casual Ties". The next year, she won the Second Prize also in the Poetry Category of the 2005 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards with her poetry collection, "Evasions". Her "Woman in Verses" also won for Yavanna the First Prize in the very first Maningning Miclat Poetry Awards in 2003.

"Naya" is a young poet whose wings of lyricism started to unfold within the walls of St. Theresa’s College, Quezon City. In High School, she was the Literary Editor of the school magazine, The Theresian. Their High School Yearbook describes her as "a poet of her own kind." This love for poetry was further nurtured in the campus of Ateneo de Manila University where she took up Creative Writing. For a time, Naya taught composition writing and poetry to Ateneo's college freshmen. Yavanna S. Valdellon is currently pursuing an M.A. in English and Creative Writing at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Norma Olizon-Chikiamco, C’71. Jessica Zafra, GS’78. Noelle de Jesus-Chua, HS’85. Yavanna S. Valdellon, HS’98. Blazing an exceptional trail for Theresian writers.